Virtual Boyfriend
by Stariceling
Summary: Manami/Onoda AU Onoda picks up a dating sim featuring a team of cute cyclists. Manami Sangaku (aka bachelor #6) immediately captures his heart, but as he becomes more invested he finds Manami's route is full of unexpected twists. Warnings for injury, embarrassment, mentions of partial nudity and food
1. Sunday

This is actually a fill for a prompt from SASO 2015: sportsanime. dreamwidth. organization/ 4403. html? thread=1458995 (Delete spaces and "anization" from "organization") (I think it kind of spoils the ending to post it. Enough to fight with this obnoxious site trying to post a link. So there you go.)

Note: I recommend reading this at Archive of Our Own: archiveofourown. organization/ works/ 7383826/ chapters/ 16772482  
This version has some of the html stripped out which I cannot figure out how to fix.

I cannot think my beta semianonymity enough for giving this a read-through! There were flaws I know I couldn't have ironed out without your help. Thank you so much for that!  
Also thanks to slr2moons for being my sounding board and for sometimes telling me to stop agonizing and just write.

I plan to post a chapter a day until complete.

* * *

Onoda wasn't looking for a new game. He only wanted to find the gloves he needed for Imaizumi's costume.

When Onoda first suggested a pair cosplay his friend had reluctantly said he'd never done cosplay before and he wouldn't know how to put together a costume. Onoda saw no reason why that should stop him if he wanted to do it! He was all fired up to put together a good Arimaru costume for Imaizumi so they could go together.

On his way to the counter Onoda made a detour to check if the single for the new Love Hime ending was in stock. He had practiced so much during the week he hadn't been able to line up for it. Onoda found a game case wedged into the space where the CD should have been.

'Racing Heart Manager,' was the title. The cover featured six attractive teen boys wearing matching white and blue jerseys. Each was riding or standing beside a road racer. Four of them had charming smiles. One, with spiky blond hair, had a stern face as he surveyed the rest of the team, and seemed to be more of a stoic type. The last one had his eyes squinted and his mouth pulled wide in displeasure. He seemed to be yelling at the boy riding beside him, who was clearly not troubled by this.

The boy on the receiving end of that glare looked a little younger. He was the only one not wearing gloves, which seemed strange. Onoda's first thought was that he was kind of cute. Everything from the dark blue ahoge poking up through his helmet to his excited smile was cute. He didn't even have to flash that smile at the viewer to catch Onoda's attention. The way he leaned forward over the handlebars made him look so enthusiastic. It seemed like he was filled with joy just to be riding. Onoda suddenly realized he was smiling in return.

Onoda hadn't known they made otome games about cycling, but that had to be what this was. He flipped it over to read the quick description. Sure enough, you could have a romantic relationship with a member of the cycling team. After transferring to Hakone Gakuen the player became the manager of their legendary cycling team and had to 'manage their training schedules and take care of their hearts to help them win (and win your beloved's heart along the way).'

There were a few lines about each of the six candidates. Number 6 on the list was the boy with the cute smile, Manami Sangaku. He was a climber like Onoda. Knowing that much made Onoda immediately feel a connection to the other boy.

Onoda had to admit he was curious about the sudden combination of his new passion with a lifetime one. Would it be fun? Would it use the cycling theme well?

The publisher was probably a small one, because he'd never heard of 'Stolen Heart Games' before. The characters all seemed to be named after their voice actors, which would have made sense if they were an idol group or something, but Onoda didn't recognize any of the names.

He did not come to get a game, Onoda reminded himself. How many dating sims did he have at home that he hadn't even started yet? Did he really need another one?

But he loved cycling, and he'd never seen one about cycling before!

After a moment of indecision, Onoda headed over to the games section to put it where it belonged. He hadn't spent as much time playing his games since he joined the cycling club. His backlog had suddenly grown into a pile of dating sims, ones he had researched and hunted down, all waiting for his attention. By now he had about fifty cute bachelors and bachelorettes waiting for him!

Six routes wouldn't take long, Onoda tried to reason with himself as he tried to figure out where the game belonged. Maybe he could look up more information online and then buy it another time if it looked promising.

He couldn't seem to find a tag for the game, or an empty space on the shelf. Feeling awkward and guilty, Onoda set the game on top of a display of new releases and looked around as if that might summon an employee to correct him.

At least it was in the right section now. Someone who wanted it could find it. He didn't need another game today.

He got about halfway down the aisle towards the cashier and stopped. What if he went home and finished the games he had and then he couldn't find this one again? He didn't know how rare it was. What if it was sold out or even out of print when he came back for it?

Manami's smile was really, really cute.

Onoda did not quite bolt down the aisle to snatch the game up from where he'd left it, but it was a near thing. It was ridiculous, but he had an overwhelming feeling that if he didn't grab the game right now he would never see it again.

Well, it was his now. Onoda hugged it to his chest along with the Arimaru gloves and went to pay for his prize.

* * *

Onoda didn't even indulge in the traditional sixty seconds of pretending he might play a game that had been waiting longer before pulling the plastic wrap off of Racing Heart Manager. The insert didn't tell him much more than the back of the case had, but he figured he could find a fan site later to look up some tips.

The opening was a brief animated sequence of each of the boys, first racing, and then in a moment off of their bikes. Onoda found himself unconsciously smiling for all of them looking very cool or passionate as they rode, including number 5 who had his jersey open to display his muscles and was not taking his race seriously (his extra clip was a shirtless workout for even more fanservice.)

Then there was the exhilaration on Manami's face when he was climbing. Onoda thought he looked like a fun person to ride with. He tried not to laugh when it switched to Manami putting his head down and going to sleep in class.

He had expected a visual novel, but rather than introduce the character he was playing, the game had him start by entering his first and last name, then select his gender and year in school. The next few questions he assumed would somehow tweak how the characters reacted to him.

 _How do you feel about cycling?_  
[ I bike to school sometimes. ]  
[ I love to watch! ]  
 **[ I love to race! ]**  
[ I hate it! ]  
[ I don't know yet. ]  
[ I don't care. ]

 _What scares you?_  
[ High places ]  
[ Hard work ]  
[ Monsters ]  
[ Crowds ]  
[ Thunder ]  
 **[ Failure ]**

 _What is important?_  
[ Feeling free ]  
 **[ Improving myself ]**  
[ Taking responsibility ]  
[ Being noticed ]  
[ Silencing critics ]  
[ Being the strongest ]

 _What do you want the most?_  
[ A boyfriend ]  
[ A lover ]  
[ A friend ]  
[ A rival ]  
[ A mentor ]  
[ A partner ]  
[ I want them all ]

The first was easy. The second Onoda had to think for a moment before deciding something like letting his friends down was the most scary among the options there. The third had one answer crossed out, as if his previous answer had made that goal unavailable. He did wonder about strategy in the possible answers, but went ahead and picked one that worked for him.

On the last question Onoda hesitated. In the context of the game he was probably meant to pick the first option, but honestly he loved his friends more than anything. He loved Makishima as a mentor. He wasn't good enough yet for a rival or partner, but he saw how those bonds inspired his teammates.

While he tried to decide the cursor flashed twice, skipped to the bottom of the list, and selected the last option for him. A text box popped up in response to Onoda's indignant noise.

 _Don't keep your team waiting! Racing Heart Manager is a game that's meant to be played in real time. If you wait too long to answer, the cursor will give a warning flash and then randomly select an option for you. This unique mechanic will help you choose with your heart!_

Onoda did not think he liked that unique mechanic. He was used to taking his time to decide. At least it hadn't happened for the first time during the game itself.

He got another message as the set-up finished.

 _Now, hurry to meet your team! Remember: the heart you win will be yours to keep forever!_

Onoda smiled at this message, guessing it meant the game would unlock a gallery for him when he won. Up until very recently he had been in the habit of replaying his favorite routes when he was bored and lonely, and even when he didn't feel bad he liked going back to special scenes.

The game was in first person. He started in a train station with a crowd of faceless NPCs in the background. A brief tutorial told him how to look around and choose the direction he wanted to go, then had him buy a ticket to teach him how to use items in his inventory.

The train ride provided time for a little exposition, starting with an excuse as to why he wouldn't be able to ride in the game, even though he had said he loved racing: He had been involved in an accident while riding, leading to unspecified injuries that meant he was now starting school late and leaving him without a bike for the foreseeable future. Onoda winced reading the scenario.

He was 'reminded' of his class number and the fact that he would be moving into the school dorm today, and left with the thought: "I hope I meet someone I can become close to."

Then he was left on his own and expected to walk from the train station to the school. Onoda assumed it couldn't be far, since the game didn't give him any directions. This was a bad idea. He quickly got turned around and ended up somewhere on a mountain road, about to collapse of thirst. Onoda was annoyed with his avatar in part because he couldn't say he would never end up in such a situation himself.

He cried out for water and the view swung down towards he ground. Onoda was pretty sure his avatar had actually fallen to their knees when someone held out a sports bottle in front of him.

There was a short animated sequence, enough to pan up and get a good view of the boy standing over him. Manami was squatting in front of him, smiling. The morning light caught him from behind and a breeze ruffled through his hair, conspiring to make him look almost angelic.

"Is Pocari okay?"

Manami's voice was a warm tenor. Onoda caught himself leaning forward as his avatar's hand grabbed for the bottle and the cut scene finished.

He was returned to the same mountain road background, but this time there was a sprite of Manami with the text box. He was relaxed, bent forward slightly with his hands in his pockets, and wearing an easy smile. Onoda found himself paying more attention to Manami than whatever he was supposed to be saying.

"Th-thank you."

"It's nothing. Are you cutting class too? I haven't seen you here before."

[ "I just moved here. I'm lost." ]  
[ "Are you cutting class?" ]  
[ "But I know you from somewhere!" ]

Onoda was finally given his first dialog option. He hesitated, looking at Manami's sprite. He was sweaty and his uniform was rumpled, but his smile was so welcoming. Onoda didn't want to get off on the wrong foot, and he didn't have time to go look for tips on the internet. He picked the most neutral option.

"I just moved here. I'm lost."

"That's right, our class rep said not to be late because we were getting a new transfer student today. Looks like I get to meet you first! Hey, do you like cycling? I noticed you knew how to open the sports bottle without having to ask."

"Yes, I like cycling!" was the first option on the list, which Onoda selected without paying attention to the others. His was too busy being happy that Manami was the first boy introduced!

"Really? Then since you're in Hakone now, how do you feel about hills?"

[ "They're difficult." ]  
[ "I don't really like them." ]  
[ "I like them." ]  
[ "They're fun." ]  
[ "That's a strange thing to ask." ]

Onoda considered for a second, then moved down to select the second to last option. Hills were fun, even if they were difficult. "I think they're my favorite," he added, although he knew Manami couldn't hear him.

"They're fun."

Manami's face lit up. "I love hills the most too! Every time I see one I get the urge to climb it, and when I climb I always end up smiling. I forget about everything else. I've already missed second period because I got carried away again. But that's okay. I even I found you today. That's right, I forgot to ask your name. I'm Manami Sangaku."

"Pleased to meet you! My name is Onoda Sakamichi. It's my first day, but. . ."

[ "Can you tell me how to get to school?" ]  
[ "Will you show me the way to school?" ]  
[ "Can I talk with you a little more?" ]

In real life Onoda would have selected the first option, not wanting to impose. On the other hand he wanted to choose the last option and keep talking to Manami. He settled on the middle option in hopes it would both get him to school and allow him to continue talking to Manami.

"Will you show me the way to school?"

Onoda wanted to add, 'you don't have to.' It felt so presumptuous.

"Sakamichi-kun? That's a great name! Pleased to meet you." Manami didn't say his name out loud, of course. It only appeared in the accompanying text box. Onoda was used to that in games that let you enter your own name. He just thought it was a fun coincidence that Manami happened to praise his first name, which was spelled with the character for hill, when they both liked hills.

Manami's pose changed so he was holding his white road racer. His expression changed to polite curiosity at the same time. "The school isn't far, so I guess I can walk you. Where is your bike?"

[ "It was damaged. I don't know when I'll be able to ride again." ]  
[ "None of your business." ]

There was no way Onoda would say something so rude to that innocent question.

"It was damaged. I don't know when I'll be able to ride again."

"That's too bad." Manami honestly did look sad to hear that, and even a little wistful. "I would like to ride together, since you like hills too. You should still come see the cycling club. It's fun to talk to people who share your interests, right?"

Onoda nodded emphatically at the screen. He had wanted that desperately for three whole years!

"Were there many good hills where you're from? Wait, let me see if I can guess. Did you move from very far away?"

With each line either of them said the scenery behind Manami changed to show that they were moving. Onoda guessed there was a limit on how many things they could say before they arrived.

There were a lot of options. Onoda decided to go ahead and pretend he was moving from where he lived now. He selected the first option.

"Not far. I'm from the Kantou region."

"Really? Then are you from the mountains or the ocean?"

Onoda selected 'ocean.'

"That means it's Tokyo, Chiba, or Ibaraki, right?"

Onoda laughed to himself as he picked Chiba. Manami had already narrowed it down to his prefecture.

"My upperclassman knows a good climber from Chiba, so you must have some great hills there! Does your school have a cycling club?"

[ "Yes, a very good one." ]  
[ "Yes, but it's a small one." ]  
[ "No. I wish it did." ]

Onoda picked, "Yes, a very good one," out of loyalty to his team. The club didn't need to be big to be good, unlike some other sports where you needed lots of members just to make a team.

The school gates appeared behind Manami.

"We're here already. I wish I had more time to talk to you." With the main door in front of them, Manami raised one hand in a goodbye wave. "You won't get lost from here, right? I'll follow in a little bit."

Now he wasn't following Manami automatically. Instead of going in the main door Onoda chose to go after Manami and found him putting his bike in one of the racks. Unlike the flat, faceless crowd in the train station, Manami was given a detailed 3D form.

When he chose to talk to Manami again the other boy simply said, "This is the club building. You should come back after class."

While he had a moment, Onoda fumbled through his inventory and tried to give the water bottle back to Manami. He didn't see a second one on Manami's bike, and he would definitely need it for practice, right? He didn't want to thoughtlessly take something Manami needed.

"Keep it. It's my duty to offer help to people in the mountains. Besides, if you were so dehydrated that you collapsed you should keep drinking." He winked at Onoda. "Don't let anyone else take it from you, either."

Manami accompanied him inside and up to their classroom. They were just in time for the short break between second and third periods. Almost immediately Manami got a scolding from the class rep, a serious girl with round glasses and cute twin tails, which included, "Stop hiding behind the transfer student!" and made Onoda smile sheepishly.

In real life Onoda would have been paralyzed being introduced to the class after coming in late, but as it was he was distracted by Manami in the group shot of the class, leaning his chin on his hand with another smile. Of course the open seat waiting for him was right next to Manami, the plot would demand that, but Onoda still cheered internally.

When Onoda took his new seat and looked around he found that next to him Manami had put his head down and gone to sleep. Apparently that was all the interaction he was going to get for now.

At lunch Onoda was confronted with a familiar obstacle. There were so many boys crowded around the lunch counter he was really only guessing where it was by sheer concentration. The game did give him an option to give up, but he thought he might as well see what happened if he tried to get lunch.

He was knocked on his butt was what happened. The view switched to a short cut scene, panning up long legs, flat butt, lean torso. . . until the view was suddenly marred by the sour glare from the boy he was staring at. Onoda immediately recognized him as the irritable boy on the cover. Being on the receiving end of that look made him flinch like he was being glared at for real.

"What are you doing on the floor?"

There was an interminable moment when Onoda almost thought the game was frozen. Then, all at once, the angry-looking boy made an irritated noise and put out a hand to help Onoda up.

The view went back to normal, though his sprite didn't look any more welcoming. He glared slightly to one side rather than forcing Onoda to meet his eyes. He pulled Onoda out of the crowd, indistinct people parting easily before him.

"Ch. . ." he scoffed. "Letting yourself get stuck in a pack like that. At least stay out of the way."

[ "I'm sorry." ]  
[ "Thank you." ]  
[ "You knocked me down!" ]  
[ _Run away!_ ]

Onoda hit the first option as a reflex.

"I'm sorry."

This only made the scowl deepen, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by someone off screen.

"Yasutomo, what are you doing?"

Once again the game switched to a short scene. Another one of the third year bikers, the one with reddish-brown hair, stepped out of the crowd. He looked far more laid back, his eyes half-lidded and calm. The smile on his handsome face was warm and easy. His arms were piled with food from the inaccessible lunch counter, and he picked one of the rolls to offer to Onoda.

"If you want to rescue people, you should take good care of them."

The comfortable air he brought remained even when they view switched back so Onoda could see both them. His presence seemed to have mollified some of his friend's hostility.

"My name is Shinkai Hayato, and this is Arakita Yasutomo. Are you all right? It looks like you got roughed up by that crowd."

The answer appeared automatically. "I'm fine. My name is Onoda Sakamichi. Pleased to meet you."

"Didn't Manami mention you? The new boy in his class who likes cycling."

"Ah, yes."

"Your previous school must have had a good cycling team, right? Maybe we've even faced off against them before." Shinkai added.

[ "Yes." ]  
[ "I don't think so." ]  
[ "I don't know." ]

Onoda hadn't asked about the history of his team yet. Maybe it didn't matter, since they wouldn't have raced this fictional version of the team.

"I don't know."

"Shinkai, you idiot," Arakita muttered. He shot another sideways glare at Onoda, one that made a chill go down his spine, but joined in the conversation with a minimum of aggressiveness. "I don't know why Wonder Boy suddenly took an interest in you, unless you're a climber or something. Ever been crowned king of the mountain?"

[ "Several times." ]  
[ "Once or twice." ]  
[ "Never." ]  
[ "I'm not a climber." ]

Onoda bit his lip with indecision. He hadn't really. Not in an official race. And even if he had taken the mountain checkpoint once he hadn't finished.

But Imaizumi had said it counted. Imaizumi was his friend, and supported him, and Onoda knew he would never say something like that if he didn't mean it.

"Once or twice," Onoda selected, for one small but cherished victory.

"Oh? Then you definitely have to come check out the cycling team," Shinkai told him with an encouraging smile. Onoda smiled back, feeling welcomed. Shinkai already struck him as a kind person.

"How do you know that wasn't when he was a kid or something?" Arakita rudely interrupted. He finally looked at Onoda and huffed. "Well?" Nothing happened, and he gritted his teeth, as if he was somehow angry at Onoda for not getting a chance to say anything. "Do you remember what victory tastes like?"

[ "Yes, I won recently." ]  
[ "You're right, it was a long time ago." ]

Onoda selected as quickly as possible. "Yes, I won recently."

For the first time there was a smile on Arakita's face. It was sharp, but no longer angry. "We can do something with that. You'd better remember to check out the club."

Even if he was meant to be a 'tsundere' type, Onoda thought he was too scary. On the other hand Shinkai seemed more like a warm 'big brother' type. It was always fun getting to see the different personalities the characters would have, even if he was already interested in someone.

And they had all told him to come see the cycling club. That felt kind of nice, like he was a wanted presence.

After school, Manami was again cornered by their class rep, but Onoda easily found the club building by himself.

There was a group of girls outside the building, and after a few seconds Onoda saw why. They had gathered around another boy from the team. As he got closer the game gave him another short cut scene to make sure he got a good look. There was no excuse for the slow pan up this time. Whoever animated that scene was determined to take full advantage of those bike shorts to show off the next eligible bachelor's toned legs and butt. Onoda's cheeks were warm by the time the view settled on his wide, confident smile.

As the cut scene ended he let out a strident laugh and said, "Thank you for your support, but I have to get to practice now."

The crowd dispersed and before Onoda could do anything he was drawn into a conversation. The apparently popular cyclist blocked his path with one hand braced casually on his hip.

"I haven't seen you around before. Do you need something?"

[ "I wanted to see the cycling club." ]  
[ "I wanted to talk to you." ]  
[ "No, nothing." ]

"I wanted to see the cycling club."

"Is that so? Well, I can see you have good taste, asking me to show you around." He flashed another smile. "I'm the vice-captain and ace climber of the cycling club, Toudou Jinpachi. You may have also heard me called 'Sleeping Beauty' because of my climbing."

He was definitely beautiful. His eyes were a deep violet that swallowed the light. His sleek black hair was held back by a white headband, save for a few stray bangs. Onoda wouldn't have been surprised if the writers randomly gave him a background job as a model or something. Something about the way he carried himself made it clear he was very aware of his own good looks.

On the other hand he had said he was the ace climber, which was intimidating and exciting all at once! Onoda repeated the words to himself like a goal he might, in his most close-kept fantasies, strive for himself. He definitely wanted to make a good impression.

[ "Thank you! I'd love to see everything!" ]  
[ "That name does sound familiar..." ]  
[ "The ace climber? Wow!" ]

Onoda did want a tour, but at that point he had thought about how 'ace climber' was what Makishima was to his team, except he was too modest to brag about it. Onoda suddenly wanted to hear more about that.

"The ace climber? Wow!"

Toudou preened, playing with his bangs. "That's right. I worked hard from my first day at Hakone Gakuen to establish myself as the best climber. But you'll have plenty of time to learn about that later. It's about time you introduce yourself and come inside."

"Sorry. My name is Onoda Sakamichi. I just transferred here."

The scene shifted so they were inside the locker room. It was larger and brighter than the building Onoda's team used.

"You're the new climber Manami told me about. I'll have you know he's already striving to follow in my footsteps. You also need to find what you're good at and focus on that until you excel, understand?"

It sounded very much like advice Makishima had given him, that he had to develop his own style. If Toudou was guiding Manami, did that make Manami a little like him? Onoda suddenly remembered the picture on the cover with Manami riding without gloves. Could he be the new person on the team? He had seemed like a confident cyclist when Onoda met him, but maybe they had some things in common.

While Onoda was lost in his thoughts, the game selected a dialog option for him, making him yelp.

"I can't ride anymore."

At least that wasn't one of the rude options, and Toudou took the explanation that followed in stride. He alternated between showing Onoda different parts of the club house–the room where they could practice on rollers, the weight room, and the various awards and pictures from past teams–and asking questions.

"Have you been cycling for a long time? Did you ever win any races?"

[ "Yes, I've won a few." ]  
[ "I've been cycling a long time, but I don't win..." ]  
[ "I just started." ]

"I just started."

"Then you must have been a cycling fan before you decided to start."

[ "Yes, I was a big fan!" ]  
[ "Yes, casually." ]  
[ "Not really." ]

"Not really."

Onoda felt sheepish admitting it. He never would have started cycling seriously if Imaizumi hadn't noticed him. Then meeting Naruko, who had so much passion, drew him in even further. Miki had kindly taken time to teach him about bicycles, starting from the very basics and giving him confidence with each lesson. They had all gotten him completely hooked.

"All I was doing before was riding to Akiba every week, and that was on a mama bike," Onoda said to himself. He didn't think he had been doing anything extraordinary.

Toudou's perfectly arched eyebrows rose even higher at his response. Onoda wondered if he should have lied and at least said he was a cycling fan. He was probably supposed to pretend he had more prior experience to get their attention.

"Even if you can't ride, there is one way you can join the team. We need a manager. I did offer to ask my fan club, but our captain wants someone who enjoys and understands racing as more than a fan. Are you interested?"

[ "Yes!" ]  
[ "I'll think about it." ]  
[ "It sounds like too much work." ]

"Yes!" Onoda selected, glad that someone had finally suggested it. Why would they even give him an option to turn down that offer?

"Let me see, who on the team have you met? Me, of course. Manami, Arakita, and Shinkai, is that right? Go back to the weight room and introduce yourself to Izumida. I'll find the forms for you."

Onoda found his way back to the weight room. He recognized bachelor number five, who had his shirt off again. The short cut scene added details like the flex of his muscles, and how his bike shorts hugged his hips, and a bead of sweat slipping down his neck to the dip of his collarbone. He noticed Onoda watching and let his eyes drift almost closed, showing off long eyelashes, before he let out a long breath and deliberately relaxed again.

"Are you looking for a place to train?"

"I wanted a chance to meet you. My name is Onoda Sakamichi. I just transferred here, but I'm hoping to become the manager of the cycling team."

"You're going to be our new manager? Unfortunately I can't judge your strength when it comes to something like that." He crossed his arms, appearing to look Onoda up and down. "My name is Izumida Touichirou. I'm a sprinter. Please take good care of us, Manager."

[ "Of course!" ]  
[ "I'm glad to meet a strong racer like you." ]  
[ "I'm not sure yet..." ]  
[ "I'd better go now." ]

"Of course!" Seemed like the obvious answer to Onoda.

"You said you're a new transfer student. Will you be living in the on-campus dorm?"

"Yes."

Izumida finally pulled on his jersey. "Then let me take a moment to welcome you in my own way."

Onoda's things had been delivered to the dorm's front office, and Izumida's welcome turned out to be carrying them to his room for him. He lifted the bags with obvious ease, telling Onoda it made a nice rest in his workout schedule.

"Have you ever gone to a school with dormitories before?"

[ "Yes, my last school had them." ]  
[ "Yes, but not for a while." ]  
[ "No, it's all new to me." ]

For Onoda, the idea of a school with a dormitory was more like the setting of an anime than the public schools he was used to. "No, it's all new to me."

"I'll show you where everything is. I live on the floor above you, so you can come to me if you need help with anything. The rest of the team lives in the off-campus dormitory, about two kilometers away."

He gave Onoda a small tour, showing him the surprisingly luxurious baths and the communal kitchen. On the way he asked a few small questions about his previous school. Was it public or private? Were there many good sport teams or just cycling? Had Onoda played other sports before?

As they walked back Izumida paused at the small green area outside the club building.

"What about other clubs? Like gardening."

[ "Yes, I like things like that." ]  
[ "No. I never had any interest." ]  
[ "Do you like gardening?" ]

"Do you like gardening?" Onoda still hadn't had the chance to hear much about the club members yet, so he pounced on the chance to ask a question. Besides, his history of not taking part in club activities wasn't interesting, and was making him feel a little awkward.

"Yes." Izumida looked startled, but he smiled. "I enjoy learning about plants and taking care of them. In fact, I've started taking care of the ones growing here."

Onoda was taken back to the club room and introduced to the captain at last. He expected more questions, but instead all he got was a few words of welcome and a short tutorial for how he would go about fulfilling his role as manager.

After a quick walk-through of the menus he would use and unlocking the team's default schedules, Onoda found himself back in the locker room one more time.

Manami's sprite immediately popped up. He was wearing his jersey now, looking bright and eager. "Sakamichi-kun! You're officially our manager now, right? I'm glad you came to join the club!"

Toudou appeared at Manami's side, one hand on the younger cyclist's shoulder. "Don't get too excited. Remember to be cool and make a good impression. We're all happy to have a new manager, after all. 3" Onoda had to laugh at the little heart in the text box.

"We're leaving our all-important training schedules in your hands," Izumida added. His sprite appeared on the opposite side from Manami and Toudou, also with a smile. "Please do your best to look after us."

Shinkai stepped in behind Izumida. "Of course, we'll help you wherever we can. Please stick with us, Manager. I hope we can win together."

There was a pause before Arakita appeared. Shinkai's hand was on his arm, as if he'd had to drag his friend on screen.

"I'm not getting my hopes up," he snapped. "Just because you might be the kind of manager we've been looking for, I won't forgive you if you give up and run away." He paused and then added, "You'd better take this chance to show us what you can do."

When Fukutomi appeared front and center it swept the other sprites out of the way.

"Now that everyone has had a chance to welcome our new manager, I expect you to get back to training. Take this chance to look over the training schedules and think of what changes you want to make for tomorrow." His expression remained calm and neutral except for a serious furrow on his brow. "We are strong. With your help we will win. Welcome to the cycling club, Manager."

Onoda finished off the first day and flopped back on the floor, smiling to himself. The introduction chapter had been fun, even giving him a feeling that he was introducing himself to the characters as well. He doubted all of those questions would have any real effect. Who would write different scripts for that many possible answers, especially from something right at the beginning? But it gave him a feeling that everyone was genuinely interested in him. He felt welcomed and happy.

Just from meeting the characters, Onoda had a feeling that he was going to enjoy playing this game very much.


	2. Monday

This fic takes place over the course of a week, which is why I thought it would be fun to save up and post this way! There will be 8 chapters total.

* * *

Onoda only rode to school with his friends when they met by chance, but lately Imaizumi had added an extra loop to his route that dovetailed into the route Onoda took to school.

When he spotted his friend, Onoda let out a cheerful call of, "Imaizumi-kun, wait!" and hurried to catch up.

"Good morning, Onoda." Imaizumi glanced at him with a small smile as they set off together.

"Good morning! How was your weekend? Did anything interesting happen?"

"It was fine." There was a slight pause before he elaborated. "I ended up staying home and training on rollers most of Sunday because of the rain. Were you okay? You should be prepared to ride in different conditions, but on city streets it can be dangerous. You need to be careful."

"I was fine. I went to Akiba early, so I missed most of the rain," Onoda reassured him. "Plus I found an interesting game while I was there! It's about cycling. The set-up is a little weird but I like the characters so I think it's going to be really fun." Onoda reined himself in long enough to let Imaizumi get a few words in while he waited excitedly for a response.

"Does it use a stationary bike?"

"No, it's not that kind of game. It's more like a visual novel."

"I see."

"But that would be fun too! A cycling game that would show you different roads and give you other racers to ride with when you're training indoors. Something like that?" If Onoda ever did find such a game he would be sure to tell Imaizumi right away.

"Yeah. That would be fun," Imaizumi agreed, with one of his mild smiles.

He fell silent when they arrived at school and had to slow to get through the crowd of arriving students, but glanced over at Onoda as they started up the deserted rear gate hill together. Onoda thought he had something else he would like to talk about. He called his friend's name to let him know he was paying attention.

Imaizumi turned his attention back up the hill and politely asked another question, "How does the game work if you're not riding?"

Onoda was glad to tell him all about it if he was interested! "Well, the main characters are all cyclists and you have to manage their team. The choices you make affect how the story progresses, and there's also different mini games you play to increase your score."

Before he could go into detail, he was interrupted by Naruko sprinting up to join them. "I knew it, you always come this way!" he crowed as he settled down to ride on Onoda's other side. His grin was energizing even early in the morning, and it made Onoda grin back.

"Good morning! I'm glad you caught us!"

Naruko and Imaizumi exchanged a look sizing each other up as their morning greeting. They both met up with Onoda on this hill often enough that they had stopped bothering to greet each other with, 'What are you doing here?' Onoda was glad that they had gotten bored with that particular argument, since it left room for new topics of conversation.

"I hope you had a good weekend, Naruko-kun!"

"Yeah, though riding in a downpour like that is never fun. You need to be prepared to ride in different conditions, but on city streets you have to be careful. Were you okay?"

Onoda managed not to laugh, even knowing the look Imaizumi must be giving Naruko behind his back. He had lost track of how many times they'd echoed each other. It was a good thing they didn't expect him to keep score.

"I was okay. I went to Akiba early, and it wasn't raining there," Onoda repeated. "I was telling Imaizumi-kun I found an interesting game. The main characters are cyclists," he started, having learned from his earlier miscommunication.

"A cycling game? So, like a driving game?" Naruko guessed.

"Of course not," Imaizumi answered before Onoda could.

"I didn't ask you!"

Onoda looked back and forth between his two friends and their annoyed frowns. He really wanted to laugh, especially with Imaizumi sounding so authoritative when he'd made the same mistake a minute ago.

"It's an easy mistake to make, right? It's a visual novel, but I got really excited when I found it because the characters are on a cycling team! You play as their manager and help them do well. It's fun so far!"

"So it'll help you feel closer to Kanzaki?"

"Ah, maybe? I hope I'm appreciating Kanzaki-san's hard work already." Onoda felt suddenly flustered. She was so kind, so knowledgeable and hardworking, and she even took the time to look after him as a complete beginner.

"But if you can't race and all you do is manage everyone it sounds like they took all the fun out of it."

"I think the fun part is getting to know the characters and bonding with them. It's great to build your relationships as you go through the story!" Onoda answered, and then momentarily wondered what they would think. He had people he liked bonding with in his life, but he still liked his games too. Then again, they had both wanted a game about actually cycling even though they trained constantly.

He peeked at both of his friends, but they seemed to accept this without comment.

Naruko laughed as they reached the top of the hill and headed for the bike racks. "You make it sound like some kind of dating sim, though. Or one of those erotic games."

"Well, it is," Onoda answered, not realizing until that moment that he hadn't specified it was a dating sim.

"I can't believe our Onoda-kun likes perverted things like that. Way to go!" Naruko teased. That alone was enough to make Onoda completely flustered.

"It's not! It's a dating sim, not that kind of thing!" Onoda didn't even know where to start. Even if he wasn't underage he wasn't after anything perverted! He liked fluffy first love stories!

"I believe you. You said you're looking forward to seeing the story, right?" Imaizumi said calmly as he parked his bike in the space next to Onoda's.

The interruption derailed Onoda's panic long enough to see that Naruko's grin was only playful. He'd already heard assumptions like that meaning, 'I don't want to be around you because of your taste,' but Naruko wasn't looking at him that way at all.

They were changing shoes when Naruko made one more comment.

"It is interesting to have a cute guy managing a girl's cycling team, though."

"It's a boy's team," Onoda clarified without thinking. He had about a beat of silence before his doubts fell on top of him all at once. "I mean, the whole feel is like an otome game, so that's not strange," he added, as if that explained anything.

The only comments he'd gotten in the past were the occasional, 'Do you know this is for girls?' but they made him self-conscious. Onoda enjoyed having both cute girls and cute boys as romance options. He wasn't sure what his friends would think about that. He doubted he would be dating anyone in real life any time soon, so it had never come up.

Onoda couldn't look up now because he was sure the silence was getting more awkward by the second. He caught his fingers in the heel of his shoe and almost fell on his face just trying to pull it on. His friends' reflexes saved him until he got both feet under him again.

"You can tell us about it later," Imaizumi said.

Naruko casually threw an arm around his shoulders and got him walking. "Well, if it _has_ to be a romance I see why adding a racing team makes it better."

Onoda's panic calmed almost as quickly as it had come. His friends didn't think he'd confessed anything strange. Not only that, but Imaizumi had even said he could tell them about it later. Onoda had never had the chance to talk about games with anyone before. He'd never had such wonderful friends.

Maybe they would even find it funny: Toudou, who was the complete opposite of Makishima but held the same position. Laid-back Shinkai, who could sprint so suddenly. Manami, who could be thoughtful and kind or impossible to manage. Manami being so cute when he rode, or when he smiled. . . maybe that was still a bit embarrassing to mention. There were plenty of other things to talk about.

* * *

The main game focused on managing each team member's daily training. Onoda was given a 'clipboard' which let him access several menus to customize their training and keep track of the results. He could choose between assigning time on the rollers, training in the weight room, or planing individual training routes. Choosing the latter brought up a large map where he could plot a route, with helpful counters for the number of kilometers and the different grades involved.

There were several stats describing their progress. The tutorial said to first focus on raising their Speed, Power, and Stamina. Speed was important overall, and also the defining stat for sprinting. Power was how the game measured climbing ability. Stamina controlled how much energy they used and how much training they could endure each day.

The goal was to make as much progress as possible without completely depleting their energy. If someone's energy bar hit zero they wouldn't be able to finish training, and they would come in without full energy the next day, _and_ Onoda felt extremely guilty seeing them worn out.

Once he had selected the day's training menu for everyone he was free to move around the club building. The three main rooms inside were always rendered with 3D backgrounds so the team could move around in real time, allowing Onoda to see what everyone was up to and talk to them any time they weren't actively training. When he sent them on practice routes he only had a time bar counting down to their return, but if he was there to welcome them he always got an enthusiastic reaction, and usually a chance to chat.

Onoda immediately started taking notes to find the perfect strategy for maximum improvement. No matter how carefully he tried to plan, the first few days were very disorganized.

On the first day of training he failed to realize how fast Shinkai's energy would be depleted when he sprinted, letting his energy crash to exhaustion.

On the second he failed to notice that Toudou had been held up by his fans and started his training route late. He didn't get moving until after Manami slipped away from the rollers to ride outside.

It rapidly became clear that Arakita wasn't listening to him.

Manami wasn't a good listener, either. He was just more cheerful about it.

On the third day Onoda set his jaw and stared down the virtual clipboard, determined to have this practice go right.

He sent Arakita to the rollers with Fukutomi and Izumida, hoping that the combination of his captain's presence and Izumida's serious work ethic would keep him there.

(Izumida still needed something Onoda hadn't figured out yet. He worked hard, but his stats were rising slowly compared to the others.)

Toudou he sent to the weight room first, where nothing could distract him. Shinkai and Manami he sent out to ride the same route together, thinking that would keep both of them out of trouble while they gained some points in stamina.

Almost as soon as he'd done that, Onoda was planning the next day. Maybe if he sent Shinkai and Izumida out together that would help Izumida catch up. If he sent Toudou and Manami together then surely being with his mentor would keep Manami on track!

As he was making notes Arakita and Izumida left the rollers for the weight room, where Arakita and Toudou started snipping at each other. Onoda listened for a second and then asked Toudou to take a turn riding. It didn't sound any more serious than when his best friends disagreed with each other, but it was about time Toudou did something else anyway.

Onoda was feeling proud of himself by the time Shinkai and Manami returned, until he went out and only got a cheerful greeting from Shinkai.

[ "Welcome back!" ]  
[ "Is Manami okay?" ]  
[ "Did Manami run off?" ]

It wasn't fair to assume Manami was playing hooky, Onoda decided. He loved riding. He skipped out on other things to go riding, not the other way around.

Could he have used up all of Manami's energy?

"Is Manami okay?"

"We passed a hill Manami wanted to climb and he took a detour. I'm sure he'll find his way back soon." Shinkai grinned. "As long as he's training hard it's okay, right?"

Onoda was saved from answering when Manami appeared. He had already taken his gloves off. He was glowing with equal parts joy and exertion, and as Shinkai said he had obviously been riding hard.

"Sakamichi-kun! You came out to meet us? It's nice to have such a thoughtful manager."

Onoda wanted to be annoyed, but it was hard with Manami smiling and praising him like that.

[ "I wanted to see you!" ]  
[ "This is my job." ]  
[ "You were supposed to stay together." ]  
[ "Where did you go?" ]

Onoda almost selected the first option. He wanted to say something nice to Manami. He wanted to pick the thing that was most likely to give him affection points or however the game was measuring his budding relationship with Manami.

He also wanted to know where Manami disappeared to when he didn't like the training Onoda planned.

"Where did you go?"

"Nowhere special. I just kept riding wherever seemed the most interesting. It's not as much fun riding on the same road over and over, so I went wherever I could climb."

Onoda sent them both to do a short cool down, then jotted down a few more notes while he waited.

He was waiting for a while. Izumida was still in the weight room while everyone else was changing and getting ready to go. Onoda checked his energy a few times, but Shinkai had visited him with an energy bar and a pep talk, which had given him an extra boost.

"Sakamichi-kun, can you help me?" Manami paused with his shirt half-buttoned and clapped his hands together in front of him. "I didn't understand some of the homework questions, so could I see yours?"

[ "I'd be glad to help." ]  
[ "You have to do your own work." ]  
[ "Sorry, I haven't done the homework." ]

"I'd be glad to help," Onoda answered. Manami's hopeful eyes were devastating. He hoped it wouldn't matter that he hadn't been asked to do any schoolwork yet.

"Hey, Manami!" Toudou appeared holding his phone, already with every hair back in place even after the exertion of practice. "Don't you dare cheat off others! You won't learn if you don't do the work yourself!"

"Huh? But I thought I might understand if he showed me."

To Onoda's surprise, Arakita's sprite popped up in place of Manami's. He was slouching in his place on the bench with a half-empty bottle of Bepsi in one hand, jersey off and towel draped around his neck. In spite of the definition of lean muscle, his collarbones were sharply etched.

"Oi, Manami-chan. You shouldn't have brought it up in front of him if you didn't want to get nagged."

"Someone has to intervene. If we allow him to learn bad habits now-"

"That reminds me: Shinkai, let me copy your history homework."

Toudou pointed dramatically at his teammate, clutching his phone to his chest with his other hand. "This is exactly what I'm talking about! Not only will you never get ahead with that behavior, you're setting a bad example for the first years!"

Manami swapped out with Arakita again, replacing the sour frown with a seemingly innocent smile. "Don't worry. Sakamichi-kun is actually a very gifted student. He always stays awake in class!"

Onoda burst out laughing. He couldn't help himself. He didn't think of himself as a gifted student, but at least he did stay awake!

Shinkai finally stepped in. "They're in the same class. Why don't you let them figure it out, Jinpachi?"

"Are you seriously asking me to shirk my responsibilities towards Manami? Manami, you know I would tutor you if you asked."

"I'm really grateful to have someone who looks after me so well." Manami turned the same eyes that had brought Onoda's defenses low on Toudou. "I thought maybe if I can study alongside someone, I'll make progress. Sakamichi-kun can help me. I'm sure of it."

"If you're that determined... Make sure you both work hard!" Toudou had to get the last word in with some half-hearted scolding, but he seemed eager to get back to whoever he was texting and without his fussing the subject was quickly dropped.

Manami flashed a smile and a victory sign at Onoda without saying anything. He hung around as the third years left, since Onoda was stuck waiting for Izumida to finish so he could close up the club room. Onoda grabbed the chance to talk to him again.

[ "Thank you for keeping me company." ]  
[ "Sorry you have to wait like this." ]  
[ "Toudou's right. I don't think I can let you just copy..." ]

"Thank you for keeping me company."

"Well, you are doing me a favor. And I know Izumida needs a good long workout in the weight room every day." Something about Manami's smile suddenly became crafty. "Since you're doing me a favor, I think I'll do one for you. I could give you some hints about the kind of training one of my teammates likes."

[ "Tell me about Fukutomi." ]  
[ "Tell me about Arakita." ]  
[ "Tell me about Toudou." ]  
[ "Tell me about Shinkai." ]  
[ "Tell me about Izumida." ]  
[ "Tell me about yourself." ]  
[ "I don't need any hints." ]

Onoda first thought was to ask Manami about himself, but he hesitated for a moment. Manami had already given him a few hints to work with. He was supposed to keep looking after the whole team to advance the game, right? Not just the person he wanted to romance. But it was vital to know what Manami liked, he reasoned, leaning back towards the choice he wanted. What better way to find out?

"Tell me about yourself."

"You want to know about me? I like climbing. I like the way it feels when I'm riding free." The look in Manami's eyes became distant. "I can't think of anything that would help you. Why don't you ask about someone else?"

The list appeared again, only with the option to ask about Manami missing. Onoda considered it. Fukutomi was doing fine. Toudou was showing nice improvement too. Manami had just given him a free hint about Izumida. Arakita he was definitely having trouble with.

But the person Onoda was worried about now was too easygoing to complain and then too fast to take it easy. He didn't want a repeat of his problems on the first day.

"Tell me about Shinkai."

"Hm. . . He has a very high metabolism. Arakita said that's why he eats so much. He needs to keep his energy up. He can be single-minded as a sprinter. In fact, he's like a different person when he gets serious. You'll see someday." Manami paused with a slight frown. "I think that's enough."

Onoda alternated between scrambling to write down Manami's hints so he could figure them out later and looking at his face. He was rewarded by seeing the troubled expression relax again.

"You're already thinking hard about how to take care of us."

[ "Of course, because it's my job." ]  
[ "Of course, because I like you." ]  
[ "Not really." ]

"Of course, because I like you." Was it too forward? Surely it was too forward. But that was the kind of game he was playing. Of course he liked them all!

"You were the most concerned about Shinkai-san. Does that mean you like him best?"

Onoda felt his face go hot. Worse, Izumida had to finish up with his workout right at that moment. Even if he hadn't heard Manami's comment, Manami easily roped him into singing their upperclassman's praises while they escorted Onoda back to the dorm.

"He's a kind and caring person."

"He always looks after his friends."

"He's calm even if you're late or you forget something."

"No, he makes you want to excel. He's inspiring!"

"When you see him in a real race I'm sure you'll be excited."

"Not to mention how handsome he is."

"Oh?" Manami shot a playful grin across at Izumida. "It's good you mentioned it. I completely forgot."

Both Izumida and Onoda were completely flustered by the time they parted ways. Izumida left for his own floor while Manami followed Onoda to his room.

Onoda would have loved to be at a level where Manami liked him enough to come over, but now he apparently was under the false impression that Onoda was pursuing Shinkai.

"I asked about you first," Onoda said to himself as Manami checked his paper against Onoda's open notebook.

Manami didn't respond, of course. In fact, he went quiet and still for a minute. Onoda looked around the plain room. He didn't think he would spend much time there that didn't involve staring at training menus, but a conversation piece might have been nice. The only thing was the sports bottle sitting on his desk.

Actually, this might be his best chance to return it. Onoda picked it up and waited until Manami put his finished homework away to give him the bottle.

"You kept this? It's definitely yours now."

[ "I'll treasure it." ]  
[ "I don't need it." ]  
[ "I want to give it back to you." ]

"I want to give it back to you."

Onoda did want to return what he had borrowed. It was only right. Telling himself it was just a game only made him think of cliche scenes returning a handkerchief or something to a crush who had kindly helped him, which only made it worse.

"All right, but I have a condition. You have to give it to me when I need it. That way I won't worry about anything, knowing you'll come running."

[ "I don't know if I can." ]  
[ "That's irresponsible!" ]  
[ "I promise." ]  
[ "I changed my mind." ]

"I promise." Onoda brightened up, glad he finally knew what to do.

"You're a kind person."

[ "Because I let you copy my homework?" ]  
[ "Because of the water bottle?" ]  
[ "Because I'm looking after the team?" ]

A simple, 'You too,' or even, 'Thank you,' would have been preferable.

"Because I'm looking after the team?"

"That's right." Manami fixed him with an unexpectedly earnest look. "I think you're going to be a very good manager. Just do your best, and I promise we'll all work hard with you."

* * *

When Onoda was confronted with a day of pouring rain during practice, he immediately thought of his friends' advice about getting used to riding in different weather conditions. He also thought of their concern for him, and their warnings that adverse conditions could be dangerous, especially with traffic. Traffic was something his map didn't give him information about.

He wondered if the programmers had thought of the importance of training in all weather, and if that would change anything. Maybe it would boost one of the stats that hadn't changed with basic training.

In the end he let Fukutomi and Toudou go out in the rain as a test, trusting that the ace and ace climber would be best able to handle themselves. He would ask Naruko about dangers of sprinting on wet pavement before he had Shinkai and Izumida do the same.

He kept an eye on Arakita and Manami. Arakita showed no desire to leave the rollers. He complained about the cold and was about as happy as a wet cat just from walking to practice in the rain. Manami was eager to be outside, even in the poor weather, but Onoda kept checking on him until the game gave him a chance to voice his concerns and Manami agreed to stay.

Next time, if there was a benefit, he would try to send Manami and Toudou together. Toudou would surely look out for Manami, and he wouldn't let his junior climber disappear on him.

Welcoming Toudou on his return triggered a cut scene as he slowly peeled off his wet jersey. Water dripped from his hair and ran down his back. The fluid play of muscle under smooth skin was beautifully defined. Toudou turned just enough to glance at Onoda, his eyes a flash of deep purple under dark lashes. He had taken off his headband already, and his bangs somehow curled soft against his forehead. He trailed his fingers through them with a sigh.

The first thought in Onoda's head was that someone involved with production had a serious thing for Toudou. Maybe too much of a thing. It wasn't that he was opposed to fanservice, but this felt like too much somehow.

Onoda considered leaving the locker room the moment the cut scene ended, but Toudou was just standing there as if frozen. He picked up a towel from the shelf and offered it to Toudou.

"Thank you, Manager." Toudou was still shirtless, but when he shifted to dry his damp hair he let the towel hang over his shoulders and cover his bare chest. There was a slight pause before he added, "That expression. . . I can tell you're worried."

[ "I'm not worried at all!" ]  
[ "I'm a little worried." ]

Onoda looked down at the controller and hesitated before telling the truth. Something didn't sit right with him.

"I'm a little worried."

"Fukutomi said to tell you he's doing an extra lap, but he'll be back soon. Remember, he is strong." Toudou might be joking about Fukutomi's mantra, but Onoda found he couldn't tell.

That wasn't what Onoda was worried about. He didn't realize what it was until Toudou smiled at him with his lips pressed tight together. It was an unexpectedly reserved expression, a world away from the type of smile Onoda saw when he was happily soaking up attention.

Toudou had looked uncomfortable in that cut scene. That was what had caused the unease pooling in Onoda's stomach.

It didn't make sense to make him look uncomfortable. The animators must have wanted to make him look shy and gone too far. That was the best explanation Onoda could find. It was just a mistake.

When he stood there thinking a bit too long Toudou spoke again. "Could it be you feel bad for sending me out in the rain? For someone who's job it is to push us, you're very soft-hearted. Then again, that's part of your charm. "

The little heart that appeared with the text went a long way towards reassuring Onoda. He gave Toudou space to finish drying off and get dressed, and soon enough he had regained his usual haughty air.

Luckily going to meet Fukutomi as he returned didn't trigger a similar show. At the end of the day both of them had received a small boost in the stat listed as 'Guts.'

The whole experience left Onoda with very mixed feelings about the possibility of sending Manami out in the next downpour.

* * *

Outside of daily training, each character had a few mini-games to let Onoda bond with them. (There were also random encounters with a fat stray cat who was absolutely _not_ Arakita's pet, but if Onoda stopped to feed or pet it that made Arakita happier than succeeding with any of his fetch quests.) Onoda's favorite was the one looking after Shinkai's pet rabbit, which he quickly mastered and kept going back to play. Toudou had a fun cooking game when he got annoyed by his teammates' eating habits and enlisted Onoda's help to make them something healthy. Onoda also enjoyed looking after the plants around the club building with Izumida.

Unfortunately, his least favorite task by far was trying to get Manami to study. Since they were in the same class the game had lots of excuses to push him into it. Either they were partners on a homework assignment, or Manami would be threatened with a punishment that would limit his time on the team–or even disqualify him–if he failed a certain test.

He would throw himself on Onoda's mercy, but once Onoda agreed to help he didn't seem to care. He had to be kept from sneaking off or falling asleep, and his attention span was terrible. Onoda kept failing the timed memory games that stood in for 'homework' because he had to stop and get Manami's attention in the middle.

There was an option to tell him to go trouble the class rep instead, but Onoda refused to try it. He stubbornly continued pursuing his bias at every opportunity.

After the first few attempts, Manami commented that it would just be the same thing next week anyway. (Onoda had to groan in frustration because he was right.) After that each time they were supposed to study he would say he wanted to talk to Onoda instead.

Manami leaned on his textbook, chin in his hand, and smiled at Onoda as he derailed their study session once again. "Let's talk about something more interesting."

[ "Okay, we can talk." ]  
[ "We should keep studying." ]

Talking to Manami couldn't hurt their relationship, could it? Onoda clung to that rationalization. His brain was tired and he couldn't pause or save and he liked Manami but Manami really wasn't helping him get through this stupid mini game.

"Okay, we can talk."

"Toudou-san told me you were still a beginner and hadn't followed racing before, so I was wondering how you plan our training."

[ "I think about what would make you happy." ]  
[ "I want to push you." ]  
[ "I research the pros." ]  
[ "It's random." ]

Onoda thought the true answer was a combination of the first two options. He liked seeing everyone improve, which meant he had to plan as much as they could handle, but of course he took their personal preferences into account as much as he could. He wanted them to be happy.

"I guess it's kind of all of them." As far as researching professionals, he was still trying to learn everything he could from his teammates for his own training. Miki taught him about his bike. He paid attention to the training regimens Imaizumi and Naruko chose for themselves. Sugimoto was happy to offer advice even unsolicited. If he asked politely Teshima had some good ideas. Of course he asked Makishima for advice and hung on every word. He had even gotten up the courage to ask Kinjou a few things. He did notice some of the things he'd learned from everyone spilling over into the game.

He was supposed to be flirting with Manami, though. Didn't that make the right in-game answer obvious?

"I think about what would make you happy."

"Really? That's nice of you, but I hope you know it will take more than that. You have to push us if you want us to improve enough to win."

Wrong answer, apparently. Onoda sighed. Without an established main character he defaulted to being himself, which made him worry he would fail Manami's route.

Even if he had said the wrong thing, Manami didn't focus on scolding him. "But I noticed sometimes you have good taste when you plan my routes. Could it be that you're a fast learner?"

[ "I think so." ]  
[ "I don't think so." ]

Onoda almost hesitated too long. He didn't think so, but he had heard it from his friends and his upperclassmen. They had said things like that to him, and even about him, that he was growing quickly and they wanted to see how far he could go.

When he said, "I think so," it was out of loyalty to everyone who had said they believed in him.

Manami smiled, as if this was finally an answer he wanted. "Someday I want you to tell me how you started cycling."

[ "I'll tell you later." ]  
[ "It's not an interesting story." ]  
[ "Will you tell me how you started cycling?" ]  
[ "We should keep studying." ]

"Will you tell me how you started cycling?"

"Our class rep is my childhood friend. She introduced me to cycling to get me out of the house. Maybe it worked a little too well, because I never wanted to stop and now I don't like being trapped inside all day!"

Onoda expected another dialog option after this basic explanation, but the game seemed to lag, leaving the text box empty a few seconds longer than usual.

"I wasn't a fast learner like you, Sakamichi-kun. It took a long time for me to be strong enough that I could ride seriously. I didn't have any strength or stamina, but every time I pushed my body to the limit I felt alive. You understand how it feels, don't you? When your heart pounds and your muscles strain. All your senses light up until you stop thinking. I want-"

Manami's expression had been getting more and more enthusiastic as he spoke until there was a wild look in his eyes. He suddenly stopped and switched tack in mid-sentence.

"Wait, I got carried away. What if I promise not to talk about this until we can race and experience it together? I'm not very good at this, and you're not good at telling me when I get out of line."

Onoda didn't have the option to say anything about Manami being out of line, and anyway he didn't think it had been out of line in the first place. He would like to know more about Manami's thoughts and back story.

[ "You can talk about whatever you want." ]  
[ "You really did get carried away." ]  
[ "We should keep studying." ]

"You can talk about whatever you want."

Onoda did hope he might hear a little more about Manami's past, but that window of opportunity had closed.

"No, I've made up my mind. Maybe when I'm not afraid I'll say something that could put a wall between us I'll tell you."

Manami seemed to be holding his breath. Onoda would have liked to say something to reassure him, but his next box only had one option.

[ "We should keep studying." ]

Onoda sighed. He hoped lack of options wasn't a bad sign. He didn't want to be locked into a bad route.

"We should keep studying."

"Sakamichi-kun. . ." The text was there and erased so fast Onoda wasn't completely sure he saw it. "Oh, have you recovered already? I thought you could use a break from studying." The expression on Manami's face seemed to lag behind his words, still a mix of quiet determination and uneasiness. It took another line for his usual charm to reappear. "Don't look so suspicious! I only interrupted because you seemed tired."

He was so obvious Onoda had been giving Manami a suspicious frown in real life. Even if he did appreciate the respite he knew by now Manami would take any excuse to get out of studying.

"We're almost done, right?"

Manami was right. After a little break to think about something else it was a lot easier for Onoda to finish the mini game. He wished Manami good night and turned off Racing Heart Manager for the night himself.

He couldn't help wondering about some of the things Manami had said. Was it a teaser for a tragic backstory that would be explored later? Something felt off, but he couldn't pinpoint what. Manami had obviously wanted to tell him, but suddenly stopped. Maybe it was something he would keep secret until they reached some event, or until Onoda was able to bond with him.

Whatever it was, Onoda was determined to keep playing until he found the answer.


	3. Tuesday

(Promises self I will post earlier today.) (Posts almost at midnight.) Is it jinxing myself to say I'll try to do better tomorrow?

* * *

After a week in-game Onoda had collected several pages of notes as he tried to find the perfect strategy. He pulled them out while waiting for his friends to come back from buying lunch and looked over them again. Luckily the game gave him free time in the evenings to study the results and get everyone's schedules set up for the next day, but it would be nice to have a plan.

Obviously he needed to focus on speed for Izumida and Shinkai, and find exercises that would increase power for Toudou and Manami. All of Fukutomi's stats ticked up steadily without much input from Onoda, which made sense for the official ace. (Onoda suspected the important thing to keep him happy wasn't training him, but training the rest of the team.)

He had at least some idea for the others, but he still didn't know how to handle Arakita at all.

"What's this?" Imaizumi and Naruko had caught up to him while he was thinking. Naruko leaned on his shoulder to read his chart. Imaizumi sat down on his other side, though he didn't go so far as to lean on Onoda.

"I'm trying to figure out this game. Um, Imaizumi-kun? What do you think is the most important trait for an ace assistant? If you had to chose speed, climbing, or stamina?"

"Isn't speed the most important no matter what?" Naruko chimed in. "Nothing else matters if you can't get there fast!"

"You need to have all of them. The assistant has to pull their ace effectively, as quickly as possible, on any course." Imaizumi answered. Onoda nodded slightly in agreement. He trusted Imaizumi's insight in particular for this position.

"What if you had to pick one to focus on?" Onoda tilted the paper for Imaizumi see. He had circled Arakita's name and added a question mark "Would it be speed? I thought stamina might be important. That helps him pull the ace as far as he needs to go, right?"

Imaizumi shifted closer to study the chart. "Why can you only pick one?"

"I'm supposed to be making training menus for my team. He only listens to one thing I say each day, so I have to make it count," Onoda answered, feeling sheepish. He had to remember it wasn't his fault personally that Arakita didn't listen. He should think of it as a challenge, but he kept feeling like he was being bossed around by a video game character.

"Make him focus on whatever's weakest," Imaizumi told him.

Onoda nodded as he obediently wrote and circled the advice.

There wasn't a lot of tweaking with the third years' schedules overall. In addition to Fukutomi driving his own improvements and Arakita doing what he wanted, Toudou and Shinkai were self-motivated and experienced enough that their default schedules didn't need much work. Shinkai had a habit of pushing himself past the limit, but thanks to Manami's hints Onoda had discovered that giving him a steady supply of energy bars was an easy cheat to keep his energy from dropping dangerously. He could eat more of them than anyone else. Toudou kept himself in top condition and just needed a little attention to not be distracted by his fans or his phone. (The fan club eventually went home, but he went for his phone after every practice without fail. Onoda suspected he had a girlfriend.)

"Naruko-kun, do you mind if I ask you a question too? Is strength training important for sprinters?"

He had been fussing with Izumida's schedule a lot. Izumida was dedicated and reliable as far as sticking to whatever training menu Onoda gave him, but something was still missing. He spent any unscheduled time in the weight room, but that felt counter-intuitive to Onoda. Shouldn't he be out riding to get faster?

"Hmm. If you're really serious your whole body has to be in shape, you know. You're throwing all your weight forward when you sprint, so you need upper body strength. Plus you need your core muscles to be strong no matter what. You also feel them when you're dancing, right?"

"Ah, that's it!" That finally explained why the same workout translated to speed for Izumida and power for Manami. "Thank you, Naruko-kun! I think I know what to do now." Onoda stopped to jot down a few notes in Izumida's column about working on core strength.

"You need to put this much thought into your own training schedule," Imaizumi told him. He pointed to Toudou and Manami's spaces on the chart. "These two are climbers, right? You have some good ideas. You should try these yourself."

"They're not my ideas. It's just because I'm always thinking of the advice I got from you and Makishima-san and-" Onoda stopped before he listed the whole club because Imaizumi looked startled. "You've supported me so much, I can feel the difference from your help!" Now Imaizumi's cheeks were getting pink. Onoda suspected his friend wasn't used to being praised for anything but winning and maybe being handsome. "I'm very grateful," he added earnestly.

Imaizumi wouldn't look at him now. Onoda thought he'd somehow managed to embarrass him even more than the groups of girls who tried to compliment him or offered to cheer him on. He hadn't meant to do that.

"Or were you worried I'll get too into this and forget to practice? I promise I won't!" His homework might not be getting the attention it deserved, and he had one or two anime episodes recorded because he hadn't stopped playing long enough to watch, but he wouldn't give up riding every day.

"I know." Imaizumi's hand pressed bracingly on his shoulder. "You're not the type who needs to be told to work hard. I'm telling you to think of your own needs first. Give yourself at least that much thought. You deserve it."

"Kakaka! Are you really that worried about Onoda-kun?" Naruko interrupted. He thumped Onoda on the back, breaking the tension.

"I just said I wasn't."

"You never say supportive stuff like that to the other first years. This is why you get accused of favoring him."

"Are you trying to ask me for a pep talk?"

"No, you can save all the tender words for Onoda-kun. Speaking of which, why does this guy have hearts next to his name? You like him?" Naruko abruptly switched tracks.

"Yes. I'm trying to play his route," Onoda admitted.

Manami's part of the chart was crammed full of notes, but not just because he was Onoda's favorite. He was the most difficult to manage by far. He plainly disliked the rollers, so the best way to get a good response from him was to plan training routes. Except if he didn't like the route he would thank Onoda politely and then go off and do whatever he wanted.

At least he had given Onoda some hints. He wanted to be exhausted as much as possible. He loved hills, preferably with steep grades. He liked novelty. Onoda could put all of that together in order to keep a fellow climber happy, and the available geography didn't hurt.

The worst thing was that if Onoda suggested the same route two days in a row then the second time it would be rejected without fail. When that happened it became even more frustrating that Manami's usual excuse was that he got so into riding he forgot the route Onoda had given him.

Both of them scanned Manami's notes, which Onoda remembered with a flash of embarrassment included, 'Why are you so cute?'

"Why is he so much trouble?" Naruko scoffed, "It's supposed to be a game, right?"

"Well, he does get better even if I do it wrong." By now Onoda was sure there was no penalty for failure. Like Fukutomi, Manami's stats would increase reliably when he chose his own training menu. The game was unreasonably forgiving as far as letting you ignore bachelor number six.

"Then what's the point?"

"I think I have to get it right for him to like me. I don't know. This game doesn't show relationship levels at all, which is kind of weird when it has other stats. I mean, there's 'Passion' but that actually has to do with how well they respond to a challenge from another racer." Even if he didn't have a statistic to follow, he thought it was a safe bet he was raising the right flags when they praised and thanked him or were happy to see him.

Manami might be difficult to train, but Onoda loved when he came back smiling and thanked him. Usually the reward was a morsel of generic praise, but Onoda had already unlocked one specific comment, 'I haven't been to Atami pass in a long time! I'm glad you thought of it. It's fun to follow one road sometimes too.' That was enough to make him want to find every possible route Manami might like.

"It's worth it. Anyway, I think I'm getting the hang of it."

"He should like you anyway!"

Onoda couldn't help laughing at how offended Naruko sounded.

"It's a game. If he were real he would appreciate Onoda's hard work," was Imaizumi's judgement.

The comment was bittersweet. It was heartwarming that his friends thought people should like him, but he couldn't help feeling disappointed every time he was reminded that Manami was only a game character.

* * *

In his determination to push Manami to his limits, Onoda found out what happened when he was pushed too far. Unlike the others, who hit their limit and stopped, Manami apparently pushed himself to collapse.

Shinkai found him somewhere near the school entrance and carried him the last leg of the way piggyback. Izumida was presumably stuck getting their three bikes back to the rack. Onoda only saw him with his brow furrowed severely in worry.

Manami himself seemed less troubled, even though he had to rest on one of the beds in the school infirmary. He explained that he had pushed himself until his legs gave out, all because he didn't want to stop.

The entire team gathered seemingly by instinct, which only heightened Onoda's feeling that this was a disaster. Arakita stayed frozen still for a few seconds, apparently livid, before moving to help Manami out of his sweaty jersey.

For some reason the game thought this deserved a cut scene. The view actually panned down to focus on the zipper of his jersey. Onoda didn't know where to look, at least until Toudou interrupted the weird moment by throwing himself in the middle with a loud cry of, "Manami!" The view snapped back up as Toudou held Manami's shoulders, tears in the corners of his eyes. "Do you live to make me worry?"

Manami answered with a sheepish laugh.

The whole weird cut scene must have been a joke, Onoda quickly decided.

"Sorry for making you worry," Manami was telling Toudou. "I should be okay soon. Shinkai-san, Izumida-san, thank you for bringing me back. Sorry for disturbing practice, Arakita-san."

"..." Arakita's sprite appeared, scowling, but he didn't answer. Onoda thought he must be very worried if he wasn't even trying to scold Manami.

Shinkai joined them, appearing with a hand on Toudou's shoulder. "Let's give Sangaku a chance to rest."

"No, someone should be here to look after him! What if something happens?" Onoda wasn't sure what Toudou thought could happen to Manami in the infirmary. He didn't look like he had the energy to sneak out.

"I'll be safe here," Manami answered, in perfect seriousness, before looking away and adding a little more shyly, "I would feel terrible if I kept you from practice. The truth is I've always looked up to you for your work ethic. I can't help but see you as my role model."

Toudou folded. Onoda was sure he would have done the same if Manami praised him like that.

Onoda was left alone with Manami, who was laying back quietly with a white sheet pulled halfway up his chest. He really did look worn out. Even his hair seemed to droop. No matter what his condition was, he didn't complain.

"Today really was fun. Well, at least until I couldn't pedal anymore. You have to let me try it again. I'll make it this time."

It was already hard enough designing routes for him, and now something like this happened. Manami was hurt so dramatically that everyone was worried. That couldn't mean anything good. Guilt that he had caused this by being too hard on Manami was boiling in the back of Onoda's brain, making it hard to think of anything else.

The game saved at the end of each day. If Onoda hit the reset button now he could play the day over and make Manami's route a little bit less difficult, and that would solve the whole thing.

"Sakamichi-kun, wait! Will you stay with me?"

[ "I'll stay with you." ]  
[ "I have to look after everyone else." ]

Onoda hesitated with his hand on the reset button. Manami had pushed himself up on one elbow, reaching out as if to beg Onoda to stay. All of his earlier nonchalance about his own condition had disappeared. His eyes were wide in a sudden flash of panic.

This was something Onoda could prevent from ever happening. He would do it right this time.

Yet when he reset the game he found it had skipped forward to the next day.

This stupid game was determined that he play by its rules. It must have autosaved at some point. Manami had still collapsed. He came in with half his usual energy, both in terms of his literal energy bar and his demeanor.

Resetting also meant Onoda lost his evening time to tweak schedules and had to scramble. He put Manami on the rollers where he could keep a close eye on him and set about finding something acceptable for everyone else.

The rest of the team had strong feelings about how he had mistreated their youngest member after being left to look after him. Arakita kept to the training he assigned for less than ten minutes game time before going off. Toudou was pointedly not speaking to him. Izumida wouldn't even look at him.

It looked like the game had decided he'd abandoned Manami when he had been begged to stay.

Onoda tried to talk to everyone. He tried to talk to Manami, looking for the option to apologize. He couldn't find a single opening to start on making things right. All he could think to do was to buckle down and do everything he could to look after them, with no more screw-ups.

With this in mind he went out to meet Arakita, who finally brought up the subject.

"What do you think you're doing, huh? You're carrying on like nothing happened."

[ "I don't know what else to do." ]  
[ "I don't know what you mean." ]  
[ "Nothing important happened." ]

"I don't know what else to do." Onoda hadn't had any other option so far. He needed something to do!

"You think that's good enough? If that's all you do, you're making promises and then not following through! You think you can be our manager with that half-assed attitude!?"

[ "I'm sorry!" ]  
[ "I'm trying my best!" ]  
[ "You don't know anything!" ]

"I'm sorry!"

"What are you apologizing to me for? I'm not even mad at you!" Arakita snapped, leaning in so his angry scowl dominated the screen.

"No, you're definitely mad!" Onoda yelped.

[ "I'm apologizing for not doing enough yesterday." ]  
[ "I'm glad you're not mad." ]  
[ "No, you're definitely mad!" ]

Even though his own honest reaction had come up, Onoda was too scared to choose it. He tried for the option that he thought might somehow make Arakita not be mad.

"I'm glad you're not mad."

"Say what you mean!" Arakita barked, making Onoda yelp and almost drop his controller.

[ "I meant it." ]  
[ "You're definitely mad!" ]  
[ "Don't shout at me!" ]

Onoda hesitantly selected the honest one.

"You're definitely mad!"

"Heh. I guess I am." For some reason, that made Arakita take a step back and calm himself, though he still gave Onoda a frightening impression of a large, angry dog. "Because the person who should be getting mad is sitting around sulking while trying to decide how to forgive you."

Did that mean Manami wanted to forgive him? Onoda felt himself brightening up, his panic at having Arakita snap at him taking a backseat to hope.

"If you think you have the guts to improve, I'm going to tell you something: Don't worry about pushing us too far once in a while. We're prepared for that."

[ "I understand." ]  
[ "I couldn't do that!" ]  
[ "But isn't that why you're mad?" ]

"I understand." Onoda nodded firmly to himself. He was sure now. The problem wasn't the training mishap. It was his fault for not following through afterward. That was a mistake he could be sure to never repeat.

"Then you'd better push yourself too."

When they went inside, Arakita shared a silent look with Shinkai before they swapped places and Arakita went off to whatever exercise he had decided on.

Shinkai had been avoiding Onoda in favor of helping to look after Manami, even getting him to accept an energy bar at one point. Now he finally moved to talk to Onoda. "You don't have to say anything. We can see you're concerned. Even if you don't understand, it's obvious you won't make the same mistakes again."

[ "I'm sorry." ]  
[ "Don't understand what?" ]  
[ "I'll do better in the future." ]  
[ "What mistakes?" ]

Onoda sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was replay this bit, but he would have liked to know what each response would be. Too bad save states were a completely foreign concept in this game.

"I guess the most important would be. . ." Onoda mused to himself and selected, "I'll do better in the future." He had been thinking that to himself, after all. He had learned from cycling club to get up and keep fighting even if he fell.

"I thought so. Of course that would be your answer, but that's why we have faith in you. I'll tell Jinpachi and Yasutomo not to give you such a hard time, too."

The message seemed to get through, at least to Toudou, who told Onoda to redeem himself by their first race. Then he pointed his finger at the screen said the words Onoda had been dying to hear, "And make sure you apologize to Manami properly! I expect to see you working hard to regain his trust!"

Onoda had finally unlocked the option he wanted. Manami was sitting in the changing room, sipping water. He had already changed out of his jersey. His energy was so low Onoda wondered if he was recovering before riding to the dorm.

"Manami-kun, wait," Onoda said automatically.

[ "I hope you feel better." ]  
[ "Be ready to work hard again tomorrow." ]  
[ "I'm sorry." ]

"I'm sorry," Onoda said along with his selection. How could he say anything else?

"I know." Manami stood, keeping his eyes down. "Don't worry. I'll come in better condition tomorrow."

That was it? was all Onoda could think when Manami left. Onoda had been able to say what he wanted, but suddenly he felt there should have been more.

By the end of the day he seemed to be more or less forgiven by the whole team, though he still felt guilty. He spent his free time at the end of the day trying to plot out a few different training options depending on how much energy Manami came in with the next day.

Onoda closed the clipboard menu for a minute and looked around at the pictures decorating the walls. Each member of the team had given him something to decorate the bare room. First Izumida had brought him a pair of posters of the cyclists Andy and Frank Schleck. Shinkai had given him a wall calendar with cute animal pictures. Fukutomi's contribution was a poster with inspirational sayings on it that occasionally gave him a training hint. Arakita's gift wasn't a decoration, but a planner which built on Shinkai's gift by adding their upcoming race dates.

Toudou's gift was his favorite: a multi-spaced frame with six group photos of the team. Onoda moved to look at it again. He especially liked the cute selfie with Toudou and Manami together. It was labeled in Toudou's neat script, 'Winner of the F-Group race: our junior climber.' Toudou had one arm around Manami as he beamed at the camera. Manami had stumbled against his senpai, obviously having just been grabbed for the picture. He was laughing. He looked exhausted and out-of-breath, but in Onoda's eyes he glowed.

It helped to have a little glimpse of what he was aiming for.

There was a knock on his door. Onoda jumped in surprise and went to answer, and found Manami standing there.

"Hi, Manager. I knew you'd still be awake. You always work so hard."

[ "It's good to see you." ]  
[ "Did you need something?" ]  
[ "You shouldn't be here." ]

Onoda guessed the last option was because Manami didn't live in his dorm, but he honestly did not care how Manami had gotten in.

"It's good to see you."

There was a pause after Manami stepped inside as he looked around Onoda's room. "It looks like everyone has started to bond with you."

Manami himself had given Onoda a wide poster featuring a beautiful mountain view. Onoda had seen an identical one in Manami's room during their study sessions. Did that mean Manami had started to bond with him as well?

[ "What do you mean?" ]  
[ "What do you want?" ]

"What do you mean?" Onoda selected, before realizing the game had now given him two chances to ask what Manami had come for.

"I suppose it means we want you to stay," Manami answered.

[ "It makes me happy to hear that!" ]  
[ "Is that what you want?" ]  
[ "If that's all, we should call it a night." ]

Onoda could guess it was too forward, too early in the game, but... "Is that what you want?"

"What I want?" Manami seemed unexpectedly tense, a tiny furrow forming between his eyebrows. There was one of those odd, game-stalling silences that sometimes happened with Arakita before he continued, "I want to say I accept your apology. I wish I hadn't brushed you off before. I was only mad at the situation."

[ "It's okay." ]  
[ "What situation?" ]  
[ "It sounds like you're still mad." ]

Onoda's first instinct was to reassure Manami, but something about the phrasing made him curious. It sounded like whatever was wrong was still happening. Everything was hinting that this went deeper than he realized, and he needed to find the answer.

"What situation?"

". . ." Only Manami's eyes moved, looking down and away from Onoda. "You... left. I'm sure you did what you thought was best at the time. I probably would have done the same. I shouldn't have forgotten about the distance between us."

"You wouldn't have left. You helped me," Onoda was saying when it suddenly hit him. "The sports bottle! I was supposed to give you the bottle! I promised! I thought I could fix it before you ever collapsed. I can't believe I didn't realize. I'm so bad at this kind of thing! Now what do I do..."

[ "What do you want me to do?" ]  
[ "I didn't think it would be a problem." ]  
[ "I had to think of the rest of the team." ]  
[ "You're being selfish." ]

There was no good answer. Now it was much too late to fix his mistake. Manami seemed to think he had just walked away, and that wasn't how you treated someone you cared about when they were hurt.

"What do you want me to do?" Onoda asked (before the game could make things worse by calling Manami selfish.)

Against all odds, Manami was smiling. He looked about to laugh at Onoda. "You're not the type to give up, right? If you can keep trying, that's all I'm going to ask for. Even if you don't get a perfect score every day I still believe we'll win."

* * *

Thanks to Naruko's advice, Onoda had moved toward allowing Izumida to focus on training his body. As he did, he saw a dramatic improvement in Izumida's stats. Everything but 'Passion' was rapidly catching up to the rest of the team.

At about the time Izumida's first race appeared marked on Onoda's calendar, he developed a habit of spending just enough extra time in the wight room to make sure he was the last to leave several days in a row.

Onoda didn't mind much. He was still happy to think he must have passed some important threshold for the race to show up. He simply waited the extra minute or two, talked to Izumida as he finished up, and then usually ended up playing Izumida's mini game and helping give the plants around the club room the correct amount of water.

"It's very satisfying to tend plants. They only need a little care every day, but if you are consistent they will grow and become strong. It reminds me of watching the results of my own daily training."

There was a pause as Onoda was prompted to water another plant, carefully keeping the amount of water between the over- and under-watering bars.

When he was done he found Izumida holding his own watering can but not working. "I've thought of this before: Is that how you feel looking after the team?"

[ "No, because the effect is different every day." ]  
[ "Yes, I feel like I need to look after you." ]  
[ "Yes, I like seeing you grow every day." ]  
[ "I don't know what you're talking about." ]

Onoda caught a smile tugging at his mouth as he chose, "Yes, I like seeing you grow every day."

"Yes. I can feel how your diligence effects us, so I'm glad you see it too."

As Onoda finished watering an ordinary-seeming bush, the watering scale was replaced by a text box. "What's this?"

The leaves were pushed back to reveal a small, red flower with ruffled petals blooming in the protection of the bush.

"It's a carnation." Izumida said. "How did something like this end up here? I don't remember anyone planting these."

[ "It's very pretty." ]  
[ "It looks very healthy." ]  
[ "Should we dig it out?" ]

"It looks very healthy." That seemed right. They were working on tending the plants, after all.

"You're right. I guess while looking after the other plants we unknowingly gave this one food and water as well."

[ "Is that a bad thing?" ]  
[ "Is that a good thing?" ]  
[ "Do you know much about carnations?" ]

This could be interesting, Onoda thought. Izumida seemed to know about plants.

"Do you know much about carnations?"

"I've never tried to grow them. I do know they can be bred to grow in many colors, and the colors are said to have different meanings. For example, a light red can mean admiration. Maybe it's fitting that you found this one, since that is I how I feel about you. I admire how reliable you are as our manager."

[ "It looks dark red to me." ]  
[ "I feel the same way about you." ]  
[ "That's kind of silly." ]

Onoda could easily guess that dark red probably symbolized love, so trapping Izumida into saying it seemed unkind. He would go along with deciding they were talking about 'admiration.'

"I feel the same way about you."

A faint red tinge appeared on Izumida's cheeks. "Is that so? Although when I look at it again, the color seems darker red. . . I suppose it doesn't matter, since neither of us chose this flower for its meaning. It's just something that grew here unexpectedly."

[ "Does dark red mean something special?" ]  
[ "You're right. It's something unexpected that grew from our work." ]  
[ "You're right. It doesn't matter." ]

Onoda once again chose not to put Izumida on the spot.

"You're right. It's something unexpected that grew from our work."

"Since you've been helping me, what would you do with it?"

[ "We should dig it out." ]  
[ "Could I keep it?" ]  
[ "I think we should leave it growing there." ]

Onoda assumed asking to keep it meant picking the flower. He liked it right where it was.

"I think we should leave it growing there."

"I hoped you would say that. Even if this wasn't planned, I would like to keep the flower that grew and bloomed unexpectedly under your care."

[ "Let's take good care of it." ]  
[ "It's not a big deal." ]

The choice did not get much more obvious to Onoda. "Let's take good care of it."

"We'll take good care of it together," Izumida agreed.

* * *

The morning before the first race Onoda started in the dormitory kitchen and was given a simple choice. He could make something special for one person, or make a smaller thing to share with everyone.

This first race was a hill climb, so only Manami and Toudou were participating. Onoda chose to make the special bento and offered it to Manami hopefully. After the difficulty he'd been having bonding with Manami so far, he thought it would be a much-needed boost.

Manami smiled but turned it down. "Sorry, Manager. I can't eat it right now."

If Manami wouldn't (or couldn't) eat the bento, maybe he should give it to Toudou instead. He didn't have any other options aside from getting rid of it. Someone might as well get the boost.

There was still some time before everyone had to line up, so Onoda found Toudou in a crowd of about a dozen of his fans. Onoda hesitated. He had read enough shoujo manga to know that interrupting a popular character among their adoring fans could turn ugly. On the other hand, he doubted someone like him could be seen as competition. He wasn't pursuing Toudou's route, and anyway he was Toudou's manager.

He got glares behind Toudou's back anyway. Onoda flinched, realizing he had miscalculated. At least Toudou was still in idol mode and not showing favoritism.

"How thoughtful! A few of my fans have offered to share their lunches already, but poor Manami hasn't had anyone offer him something, has he?"

[ "Okay, I'll give it to Manami." ]  
[ "Manami didn't want it." ]  
[ "But it's for you!" ]  
[ "Then I won't give it to anyone." ]

Onoda almost picked the truth, but that might hurt Toudou's feelings, or at least his pride, and Manami might be scolded as well. The game would know if he lied. He guessed he was out of options.

"Then I won't give it to anyone."

"Really? Then I suppose I'll have to accept." Toudou took the bento from him, so that he was holding the opened box in one hand. "It's delicious! These are all things I taught you to make, too. Thank you, Manager."

Onoda returned to where Manami was, hoping company would protect him in case he'd incurred the of wrath of Toudou's fans. Toudou spoke to him once more as he went to line up. "You've given me all the energy I need to win this race. I'll be looking for your lovely face waiting at the finish line! Let's go, Manami."

That sounded very much like there was a relationship boost involved. Now if only he could get a similar reaction from Manami.

The race itself went quickly. A small map tracked their progress, with still images of Toudou and Manami riding at different points of the race. About halfway through Manami took off his gloves and started passing the competition in quick bursts. His expression was pure, wild, joy that made Onoda's heart pound in excitement.

Onoda was given the chance to cheer them on before the finish line, which obviously gave them a boost. Toudou flashed a dazzling smile and pointed dramatically at Onoda in response, then pulled well ahead to take first place. Manami's boost wasn't as dramatic, but Onoda was sure he threw himself into his uphill sprint even harder, even if he didn't successfully pass his upperclassman. They claimed first and second place well ahead of the rest.

After the race the rest of the team gathered together. Fukutomi commented that Toudou had gotten serious the most quickly, which had led to his victory.

Arakita had a pointed comment for their runner-up. "You smelled like you were getting serious, Wonder-boy. How long are you going to let that flirt stay ahead of you?"

"Well, I can't underestimate Toudou-san if I want to win against him," Manami answered.

As if that was a cue, the game switched to a cut scene showing where Toudou had gone. He was laughing and posing for the same small crowd of fans. Then he looked into the camera and the wide idol smile changed into something bright and excited. He excused himself and walked away from the crowd, toward Onoda.

When the cut scene ended Toudou took center stage with his proud smile. "There you are. I heard your voice over all of my cheering fans. I knew I would come out ahead with your support. Let me treat you to something to thank you. "

[ "I would love to." ]  
[ "Maybe next time." ]

"Did you just ask me out?" Onoda hadn't even been trying to get Toudou's attention. He wouldn't say he was opposed to seeing Toudou's route at some point, but he did have someone specific he wanted to romance.

"Maybe next time."

Luckily Toudou took the rejection gracefully and thanked him again for his support. Onoda hoped there would be no hurt feelings.

Manami approached him next. "I wanted to fight even harder when I heard you cheering, but it looks like I need to keep training. I hope you'll still support me in the next race."

[ "Of course!" ]  
[ "Maybe." ]

"Of course!" Onoda happily selected that option. He hoped Manami would feel close enough to him to accept more of his help as well.

* * *

Damaging his relationship with Manami after his collapse almost put Onoda over the edge, but having Manami say he couldn't accept the bento drove home the fact that he was not on the right track to winning Manami's heart. Onoda finally broke down and went looking for some kind of walkthrough. Even a little synopsis of each scene would help him know what direction he needed to go.

Onoda couldn't find a walkthrough, which wasn't unbelievable. The game might be brand new, or somehow unpopular. But even then he should have at least been able to find something about it. He couldn't find a single fan site, review, store listing. . . anything. He couldn't even find anything about the publisher.

How was that possible? So much work had obviously gone into the game. He was still amazed by how many options he was given in the dialog trees. The voice actors might not be names he recognized, but they were all talented. The number of expressions each character had gave them a beautiful range of emotions. On top of all that, there were not just beautiful CGs to enjoy but multiple animated clips!

How could such a complex game have no fan following and no advertizing? In the normal state of Onoda's world such a beautifully made game would have to be a cult classic at the very least. More likely there should be official guidebooks and artbooks and maybe even an anime in the works. How could anyone play the game and not want more of these characters?

It was as if he had found the only copy of the game in existence.

"That's not possible," Onoda informed the booklet sitting innocently on his desk. The thought was making him uneasy. "I'm not the kind of person that kind of thing happens to. I'm not! I have friends and my own team and everything!"

Maybe the person he had been on his first day of high school, when he was struggling to make a friend or even find someone to talk to, could have happily dropped into a fantasy world where people suddenly liked him. Now he wasn't the kind of hopeless guy you saw at the beginning of a harem series! He had Imaizumi and Naruko and his upperclassmen and cycling! He didn't need to be the kind of person miracles happened to now!

"What if it's banned?" Onoda suddenly groaned, staring at his useless search results. "No, why would it be banned, it's perfectly- no, what if it's an adult game that wasn't labeled so it got banned and then someone deleted all the pages?" Onoda tried to tell himself that was a silly thing to worry about. There had been some fanservice, sure, but the scenes hadn't been anywhere near sexual enough to get the game banned. "What if it's based on a real team? What if it's based on the real Hakogaku team and it's an adult game so now it's banned!?"

Onoda was about ten seconds from looking up pictures of the Hakone Gakuen team, but he hesitated before clicking 'search.' He didn't really want to know. As long as he didn't look the characters would be fictional. He could flirt with fictional characters. He couldn't bring himself to do that with real people.

He flipped the booklet closed and brushed Manami's form with one finger.

"If you're a real person... I don't know what I'll do, but I have to do something."

There were no pictures of this year's team yet, but even if there were no one could have made a game like that so quickly. Surely it had to be a past team. He found an image of last year's team on the podium, then the year before and the year before that. There wasn't a single familiar face.

Onoda let out a breath that came out sounding somewhere between a sigh of relief and a punch to the gut. They were just game characters, so it was safe.

They were just game characters, and what was he planning on doing if they weren't, anyway? Was he going to go find the real Manami and tell him he'd been romancing him through a game? He would die of embarrassment first!

"I don't care what's weird about this game," Onoda finally decided. "I'm going to keep playing for you." He always did get way too invested in these games, but Onoda thought this had reached a new level. He honestly wanted to be able to ride with Manami, and if he couldn't do that he wanted to at least experience every moment with Manami that he possibly could.


	4. Wednesday

Found a plot hole in the literal eleventh hour. (Had to go over chapter 5 anyway so hopefully have that up later today.) This would be a chapter of many frustrations for Onoda.

* * *

"Did something good happen?"

"Huh?" Onoda only realized he was smiling to himself when Naruko's voice reached him. "I just found something good in my game, that's all."

Actually, it was more due to a realization he'd had after he attempted to put the game out of his mind to finish real life homework. He had been daydreaming about the race when he remembered Arakita's comment about Manami getting serious. Meaning (he hoped!) that Manami was actually close behind Toudou. They might have suffered a setback, but Manami was still in the running!

"Don't tell me... you unlocked those kinds of scenes? Nyahaha! Good going!"

"It's not that kind of game!" Onoda protested, flailing his hands in denial, as if that might better make his case. At least there was no one else around the tree they had chosen to eat lunch under.

"Isn't this the cycling game?" Imaizumi said from Onoda's other side.

"Is that what we're calling it now?"

"That's what we've been calling it the whole time."

"Right!" Onoda scrambled to agree. "That's all..." His face was so hot his skin was stinging. It felt like he was lying even though he wasn't. He could swear he wasn't. What Naruko meant by 'those kinds of scenes' was something far beyond suggestive.

Naruko thumped his back. "There's no way, huh? You're the least perverted guy I know. That's why it's funny," he said cheerfully, but when he patted Onoda's back again the gesture was more gentle. "You okay? What's wrong?"

"There are scenes like that," Onoda confessed in a high, thin whine. He had made sure not to welcome anyone back from cycling in the rain after Toudou's scene, but he had uncovered plenty of sexy pictures elsewhere.

"Wait, what!?"

"There's a lot of shirtless pictures, and..." Onoda didn't know how to explain what was making him uncomfortable.

He knew Izumida's back was as perfectly defined as his chest from one shower scene. He hadn't even thought of someone's back being attractive before that, but then Izumida's face has been so red when he looked back over his shoulder. Onoda had been made all too aware of the harsh arrows of Arakita's hipbones pointing into his bike shorts, and even more so of how pissed off he looked in every pinup-worthy CG he was featured in. There were CGs that highlighted Shinkai's full lips, Toudou's backside, Manami's legs...

Manami could just destroy him. Easily. Toudou had (thankfully) interrupted his fanservice animation, but one CG Onoda had unlocked last night had definitely gotten to him. Manami had been missing even his thin undershirt but he didn't seem to care. He had his hand casually on one hip, weight shifted to one leg as he gazed out at Onoda with more confidence than Onoda felt peeking through his fingers. There had been a laugh in Manami's voice when he asked, 'Do you want something?'

"Shirtless pictures?" Naruko repeated. "Hotshot, promise me you'll protect his innocence."

"Is that bad?" Onoda asked. He really liked that image of Manami shirtless and smiling. Some of the others had made him uncomfortable, but he had liked that image a little too much.

"Is what bad? They put that stuff in because people like it, right? It's perfectly normal," Naruko insisted. When Onoda stayed silent, unable to explain the problem, he added, "No one thinks you're gross or anything, and we'd like you even if you were."

"Oh." Something in Onoda's chest released and now his eyes were stinging more than his cheeks. He rubbed them self-consciously. Naruko didn't think anything bad about him. He knew that and yet the relief at being reassured left him feeling wrung out.

"You okay?"

"Mm." There wasn't a lot he could do about the game itself, but being told he wasn't doing something wrong, or being judged for it, helped. "Thank you, Naruko-kun!"

"Is there something about this game that's making you uncomfortable?" Imaizumi asked once he'd had a chance to calm down.

Onoda didn't want to try again to explain. He teetered on the edge of telling them about his unsuccessful search for information instead. He was sure they would understand how weird it was that there was nothing to be found for a game where someone had put so much care into bringing the characters to life.

At the same time, he remembered his promise to himself. He wanted to see as much of Manami as he could. He could close his eyes for a few seconds if he had to.

"It's okay. I'm having fun, and I want to win." Onoda suddenly thought of something both of them would recognize as a positive milestone. "I even unlocked the first race!"

"Great! You won, right?"

"Yes! It was a hill climb. I'd like to see one in person too." It had been cool to see, but it had been still pictures as Toudou and Manami passed other racers and competed with each other. Onoda would have liked to see their climbing styles for real.

"You should participate in one, not just watch." Imaizumi said.

Onoda somehow hadn't thought of that. He would love to try it, but he couldn't help the sudden rush of nervousness. He waved his hands as if fending off the suggestion. "No, that would be... Wouldn't I need a lot more experience to qualify?"

"Onoda," Imaizumi's tone laid his excuses to rest all at once. "If you want to enter, then enter. We can sign up for one together after the Inter-High." Imaizumi probably saw the stars in his eyes because he quickly added, "Just remember it's not a team race, so you'll be competing against me as well."

"I know. Even the game works like that. I mean, it was the ace climber who won. I kind of wish it had been Manami-kun." If it had been Manami, would that have made them closer? Maybe he would have asked Onoda to spend time with him.

"Wow, you're really playing favorites," Naruko commented. He looked over at Imaizumi and raised his eyebrows as if trying to prompt something, but got nothing more than a look for his trouble. He turned back to Onoda, "What makes you like this guy so much?"

"Well, Manami's a climber like me," Onoda said shyly. "He loves hills. He smiles when he climbs, and it feels like he's excited. I thought, I'd like to see him as much as I can."

Naruko reached behind him to poke Imaizumi, only to have his hand smacked away. When Onoda looked at Imaizumi he was still listening silently as if nothing had happened. Onoda looked back at Naruko in confusion, only to have Naruko's arm flop over his shoulders.

"Kakaka! Yeah, there's something about climbers who love their job, right, Hotshot?" Naruko teased before encouraging Onoda to keep talking. "So, what else? Is he like that guy? Super popular for no reason?" he added, jerking his head towards Imaizumi as if their friend couldn't hear them.

"No, he's more like the opposite of Imaizumi-kun. He's very carefree. He skips out on things he doesn't like, and has a playful attitude even when things are hard."

Did that make it sound like he didn't appreciate his calm and steadfast friend somehow? Imaizumi was very dear to him, and Onoda didn't want to say a bad word about him. "Actually, Imaizumi-kun and Manami-kun do have many good things in common! They're both very kind and look after people. Manami-kun can be patient and thoughtful if I don't get something right the first time, just like Imaizumi-kun. And he even says he believes in me while pushing me to do my best. I mean... I really appreciate all your help, Imaizumi-kun."

Imaizumi was looking at Onoda with an unreadable expression. It seemed like he was searching Onoda's face. Onoda was about to protest that he wasn't making fun and he meant every word when he got a faint smile from Imaizumi.

"Thank you."

Onoda smiled back. Manami did share some of the qualities he loved about both of his friends, he realized. Like them, Manami seemed to believe in him. That was part of why Onoda wanted so much to succeed.

* * *

The day after the race one of Toudou's fans gave Onoda a letter as he was walking towards the club building. He knew it was one of Toudou's fans because when he opened it, it said, 'Toudou belongs to everyone! Don't monopolize him!'

One point for shoujo manga cliches. Instead of trying to hide the letter or throw it away in the locker room, Onoda waited until the coast was clear and then took the letter out to the school incinerator to make sure no one would conveniently find it and further the plot. He was not going to let himself be pushed down the wrong route.

Even if he had gotten rid of the evidence, the game seemed determined to explore the subject. After practice, with everyone but the chronically late Manami (this time, being late hopefully meant he liked the extended route Onoda had drawn up to test his newly increased stamina), Toudou suddenly decided to bring up the subject of his fan club.

"I've taught Manami too well. Not only is he learning to copy my style, he's started stealing my fans! Now I have to work even harder to polish my own image. I have a reputation to maintain."

"Not really," Arakita, Shinkai, and even Fukutomi answered in unison.

"You didn't have to say it like that!"

Toudou lingered, sulking and fussing with his hair at first, and then fiddling with his phone. Once the others had left he spoke up again. "What about you, Manager? Who do you think is more attractive? Don't be afraid to speak your mind."

[ "You are" ]  
[ "Manami" ]  
[ "Izumida" ]  
[ "Shinkai" ]  
[ "Arakita" ]  
[ "Fukutomi" ]  
[ "Everyone looks good." ]

Onoda licked his lips nervously. Flattery would definitely get him in trouble here, and if he was polite and didn't pick a side Toudou probably wouldn't buy it. He was sure his face was blazing red, but at least Toudou couldn't see it. He held his breath and told the truth.

"Manami."

"Really?" At least Toudou didn't look angry or hurt. Instead he tapped a finger against his lips thoughtfully. "Well, he is at least a seven, and he's used to using his charm to get out of trouble. The truth is, I can see how he could steal a few hearts. Beauty comes in many forms, after all. Don't you dare tell him I said that, though."

Onoda sighed in relief. He wasn't sure how much he liked Toudou's insistence that Manami also had fans, but he would brave that gauntlet if it came to that.

"Or maybe you think how you feel is more important than how beautiful someone is."

[ "Beauty is more important." ]  
[ "Love is more important." ]

"Love is more important." Onoda's first impression might have been how cute Manami was, but spending time with him was far more wonderful than just looking at him.

"Somehow I knew you would say that. You seem like the kind of person who would rather be loved by one person than admired by many people."

[ "I want to be loved." ]  
[ "I want to be admired." ]

Toudou needed to stop embarrassing him. Onoda hoped Manami wouldn't walk in while they were on this subject. Unless that revealed Manami's thoughts about love. Maybe he could brave the embarrassment for that.

"I want to be loved."

"I thought so."

Toudou was holding his phone tightly. He seemed to have forgotten to put it down. There was absolutely no way he wasn't sending all those messages to someone he loved. Onoda suddenly realized he couldn't bring himself to do Toudou's route if it meant breaking him apart from whoever that was.

If he was honest with himself, he knew a replay would just have him falling for Manami all over again.

"I can tell you have a deep and loving heart," Toudou continued, unaware of Onoda's revelation. "When you're with the person who moves your heart, reach out to them any way you can. I promise you they won't be able to resist your charm. "

Manami burst into the changing room just after that, exhausted and elated all at once. Toudou gave him a few words of praise and quickly left the two of them alone.

Unfortunately, Manami didn't take advantage of having Onoda to himself today. He apologized for being late and thanked Onoda for the day's training menu without letting him get a word in. He hit Onoda like a whirlwind, energetic and disorienting and gone all too soon.

It wasn't until Onoda was working on a new route to give Manami the next day that he paused to wonder if Toudou's last comment had been hitting on him, or encouraging him to date someone else.

* * *

Izumida's first race was a circuit for sprinters to show off. Fukutomi decided it would be good practice for him, so he was the only one representing their team.

Onoda went with the bento option again. Toudou and Manami's performance had showed him that the more he bonded with his team, the more his presence boosted them ahead during a race. At this point he wanted to see his team win. He was more than willing to exploit any game mechanic that put them ahead.

Izumida stayed near the front from the first lap, calm and seemingly unconcerned by his competition. His pace was steady, but Onoda noticed a small burst of speed each time he passed the spot just before the finish line where Onoda was cheering for him. On the last lap he finally zipped up his jersey and left everyone else far behind.

After claiming the goal, Izumida got a short cut scene. He took his helmet off first, then unzipped his jersey again, letting a convenient wind blow it open to show off muscles glistening with sweat. He looked up into the camera while he took a deep breath and let it out again, as if he still needed to brace himself for something.

More than the cut scene, Onoda preferred seeing Izumida on the podium with his teammates cheering him. That came with a sense of fulfillment. Once Izumida had the right training and support he had excelled, and seeing his usually serious face light up at his victory was wonderful. When Shinkai clasped his shoulder and praised his improvement he was nearly glowing with joy. Onoda would have to remember to thank Naruko and tell him how effective his advice had been.

After the short celebratory scene, Izumida turned to speak to Onoda. Instead of the confident posture that had carried him up to that moment, his shoulders were faintly slumped. Onoda's first thought was that he must be worn out.

"Onoda-kun," came up silently in the text box. It felt strange to see someone other than Manami use his name. Stranger than that, Onoda had never seen Izumida face anything so nervously.

"Andy and Frank reminded me today how much stronger they've become since you came. I feel more energy having you here, like my body will never give out no matter how hard I ride. But I realize it's not just that I've grown stronger. Before I knew it was happening, other feelings grew inside of my heart under your care. That is..." Imaizumi's face was red. He insisted on keeping his gaze on Onoda, even though he looked so embarrassed that Onoda felt bad for him. "I would like the chance to spend time with you, outside of training."

Onoda recognized the little callback to their scene with the flower so he couldn't say he _hadn't_ been bonding with Izumida, he just hadn't realized he was anywhere close to a date offer. He blamed the bento.

He was given the same options as he had been with Toudou.

"Maybe next time."

Izumida lifted his head, calmly accepting the rejection. He looked relieved more than anything. "Then I'll be happy just having your support as a manager. Do you have something else important you're working towards? I'm sure if you put in your best effort every day you'll reach your goal."

* * *

Onoda finally got through a week with a one hundred percent acceptance rate for Manami. On Friday afternoon Manami came back later than usual, well after everyone else had gone home. Onoda was worrying about him when he finally appeared, wearing a faintly sheepish smile.

"Sorry! I was enjoying myself so much I didn't pay attention to the time."

[ "I don't mind." ]  
[ "I'm glad you enjoyed your training." ]  
[ "You kept me waiting." ]

Onoda selected the second option immediately. It was true. Besides, Manami was almost impossible to be mad at.

"I'm glad you enjoyed your training."

"You always work so hard to look after me. I know it's ungrateful, but sometimes I'm a little unsatisfied with having you as a manager."

[ "Why?" ]  
[ "You dislike having me as your manager?" ]  
[ "After everything I've tried to do for you?" ]  
[ _Cry_ ]

Onoda chose the simple, "Why?" He chewed his lip, feeling unexpectedly hurt.

"The whole time I was training today I kept thinking how much I wanted to ride with you. I wondered what it would feel like to climb with you, and to race you. It's something that's been on my mind lately. As long as you're the team manager, we can't do things like that."

"Oh," Onoda answered out loud. He laughed shakily. "I've been thinking that too. It would be fun." If only Manami were real, Onoda definitely wanted to ride with him.

"Is that selfish of me?"

One of the dialogue options was exactly what Onoda was thinking.

"I would like that too."

"Thank you, Sakamichi-kun. I'm starting to think someday you'll be more than our manager. Do you think it's possible?"

[ "Yes." ]  
[ "No." ]  
[ "I don't know what you're talking about." ]  
[ "Let me close up the club room." ]

Yes, of course. The answer would always be yes. Onoda wanted to believe that could really happen.

* * *

All of the third years signed up for the next race. This time Onoda chose to make something that would give everyone a small boost. That turned out to be rice balls he could pass out to the whole team before they got in the van. Everyone thanked him happily (for a value of 'happily' that included Arakita's grumbling about being up too early and Fukutomi looking either pained or silently overcome with emotion) and promised to do their best.

This was a longer race with a feed station in the middle where Onoda was surprised with a series of quick-time events passing water and food to them. Each cheering section gave his whole team a visible boost, until they were all well ahead of the competition. Onoda felt a real flash of pride with each check point they claimed.

He was able to enjoy seeing three of them racing for the first time, even if it was in still images. Arakita charging like a mad dog didn't actually surprise him. He would have been horribly intimidated riding next to Arakita, but at the same time part of him was proud of the way Arakita cleared the way for their ace.

Fukutomi's style was what Onoda would have expected. No-nonsense, efficient, and strong. The effort was all in his legs instead of his face as he expanded the lead Arakia had given him.

The one who really surprised Onoda was Shinkai. He knew Shinkai's sprint could eat up hundreds of meters like they were nothing, but he hadn't thought beyond that. No one had told him about the demon that appeared on Hakone's straight roads. Even through the screen, the frightening intensity of Shinkai's sprint blew him away.

By the time the race was over, Onoda felt moved by the entire team. He hurried to congratulate the third years alongside Izumida and Manami.

It seemed appropriate to speak to Fukutomi first, as the captain and ultimate winner of the race. He received a few composed words of thanks, and then, "I've noticed everything you do for the team, and thanks to you everyone is in top condition. I ask that you continue to support the entire team."

Toudou finished talking to Manami and approached him. He repeated his date offer from the first race, and Onoda once again had to turn it down.

"Are you saving your day off for something special? I'm sure you'll get exactly what you're hoping for one of these days! I'll just wish you happiness."

Arakita took Toudou's place and Onoda stared at him in alarm. Compared to Fukutomi's natural composure and Toudou having already found time to smooth his hair and change into a fresh jersey in anticipation of taking his place on stage, it was still obvious he had been fighting hard. Onoda could still see hints of that mad dog style in the set of his mouth, if not his eyes.

". . ." For a moment Arakita glared to one side, not speaking. Onoda could almost feel frustration radiating off of him. "Are you waiting for something? You're so diligent, even making breakfast for everyone. You try too hard to be a good boy all the time, but you want something. You think I can't smell it on you? Why waste time trying to get on everyone's good side instead of going after what you want?"

[ "What's wrong with trying to be good?" ]  
[ "I like looking after everyone." ]  
[ "I don't want anything." ]  
[ "Maybe I will go for it." ]  
[ "It's none of your business." ]

Onoda hesitated, but he could almost hear Arakita barking, 'Say what you mean!' It felt like he would sniff out a lie.

"I like looking after everyone."

Arakita looked right at him and gritted his teeth, but he didn't call Onoda out on the answer. When he did speak he didn't look away. "Everyone? If you were honest you would hate me and try to run away from me."

[ "Why? I don't think you're scary." ]  
[ "I have to put up with you for the team." ]  
[ "You're scary, but I also think you're cool." ]  
[ _Run away_ ]

Onoda smiled to himself at the last option. Arakita was kind of scary, especially when he was racing or angry, but Onoda wasn't going to run away. Onoda admired how determined and focused he was. "You make a good ace assistant," he decided to himself.

"You're scary, but I also think you're cool."

The game seemed to pause once again. Arakita glared at nothing as if internally struggling with himself. After a few seconds the game went into a cut scene.

Arakita leaned back slightly, hand on his hip. Lean muscle was defined on his thighs and arms when he moved. The rumpled state of his sweaty jersey and his short hair sticking out in all directions managed to look roguish instead of unkempt. Onoda thought the deciding factor was the way his scowl transformed into the twist of what would best be called a smirk. It put a new light in his eyes, and made him unexpectedly handsome.

"Heh. I guess it's not a bad thing that you're diligent. You've improved because of that." He reached up to scratch his hair. "Guess I'm in a good mood since we won. Let me buy you a Bepsi to thank you for your work today."

[ "I would love to." ]  
[ "Maybe next time." ]

"That's a date offer?" If he hadn't known, Onoda would have been flattered. He still was flattered, but he couldn't accept. "I wonder if you'd keep being scary if I said yes," he said to himself.

"Maybe next time."

"If that's your answer then you'd better pay more attention to where you're going. You're expecting someone to notice you, so make them."

Onoda felt his cheeks getting warm. "You're not supposed to know that." He knew Arakita wasn't talking about Manami, just insinuating that Onoda was going for someone else, but it still made him squirm a little thinking his crush was so obvious.

Shinkai was still talking to Izumida, apparently out of range for Onoda to hear. Onoda didn't want to interrupt, so he looked around the tent and talked with the others. Without him meaning for it to happen, the race day ended without Onoda getting a chance to congratulate Shinkai at all.

* * *

Onoda didn't realize Shinkai was avoiding him at first. They hadn't had a conversation all day, but that wasn't odd since Shinkai had gone out to ride. Onoda didn't notice anything until he went out to meet Shinkai on his return.

"You don't have to push yourself, Manager. I appreciate all your hard work, so it's fine if you don't meet me after I've been riding."

Onoda didn't get it, but Shinkai was covered with sweat so he grabbed the towel and extra water bottle he kept by the door.

Shinkai looked surprised even as he accepted them. "Thank you. You're even more kind than I realized."

After that Onoda was paying enough attention to tell that Shinkai was definitely avoiding him. Right after practice he went to the small enclosure where Usakichi lived, knowing Shinkai would be there to check on her at this time of day.

Usakichi was out for supervised exercise time, loping through the grass at a lazy pace near Shinkai's outstretched legs.

"Shinkai-san? May I join you?"

"You want to talk? Or did you want to play with Usakichi?"

[ "I want to see Usakichi." ]  
[ "I want to talk to you." ]

"I want to talk to you." Onoda had stopped playing the other character's mini games after Izumida's confession to give Manami more of an edge.

"I guess I can't run now. What did you want to talk about?"

[ "Are you all right?" ]  
[ "Why are you avoiding me?" ]  
[ "Never mind. It's nothing." ]

Onoda decided against leading with an accusation. "Are you all right?"

"You're worried? I should have known you would be too conscientious to let it drop."

[ "It's my job to help." ]  
[ "Never mind." ]

"It's my job to help." That wasn't quite what Onoda would have liked to say, but maybe it was better to keep this professional.

"I'm doing this for your sake. I saw your face after I finished my sprint. You'd never seen it before, have you? That demon who charges ahead with no thought except the goal. I didn't think to warn you about that."

[ "It was a little thoughtless." ]  
[ "It was frightening to see you that way." ]  
[ "It excited me to see you that way." ]  
[ "I was surprised." ]  
[ "I don't care either way." ]

"I was surprised," Onoda answered truthfully. Seeing Shinkai like that had startled him, but it had not occurred to Onoda to be scared away by seeing that intensity.

"I can see how you would be surprised, but this is normal for me. There was a time when I didn't think about anything but winning. I didn't think for an instant to touch my brakes, and ran over Usakichi's mother during a race. I didn't stop, but on my way back I saw her body, and her child beside her." Shinkai was quiet for several seconds before adding, "Does it bother you that I've returned to racing the same way?"

[ "I'm afraid of seeing you that way." ]  
[ "I can handle it." ]  
[ "I like it." ]  
[ "I think it's okay, because you're a kind person." ]  
[ "Couldn't you stop?" ]

"I think it's okay, because you're a kind person," he chose, because of course Shinkai was.

"You remind me of Tadokoro-san," he laughed to himself. Tadokoro might be huge and tough and intimidating, the type of person Onoda had difficulty dealing with in the past, but he was also a kind person. He pushed his underclassmen to excel with an unwavering belief in them. He held himself proudly as an example for them.

"You're saying I'm kind enough to change for you," Shinkai was saying. He glanced up at Onoda and paused before adding, "Am I wrong?"

[ "You're right. I know you'll do that for me." ]  
[ "I don't expect you to change for me." ]  
[ "It doesn't matter. I'm just you manager, after all." ]

"I don't expect you to change for me." It had never occurred to Onoda to expect such a thing.

"You're so earnest, I can't doubt you for a second. I'm glad you're like this."

The game gave him a few seconds of animated cut scene. Usakichi flopped next to Shinkai and let him pet her. His smile as he looked down at her was strained. When he looked up at Onoda the weary smile was replaced by something more bracing and closer to his usual self.

"Let's try this. Will you spend this Saturday with me, Sakamichi? Whatever you want to do is fine."

Onoda had to choose, "Maybe next time," once again. He really should have seen that coming. At least it looked like his relationship with Shinkai was repaired. Maybe a little too well.

"I thought so," Shinkai answered. He laughed, all the tension going out of him and, leaving him once more with the easy-going air Onoda had gotten used to. "Well, I had to ask. Is there someone else? I think in this case it's okay for you to become a demon like me. Don't take your eyes off the goal."

It was embarrassing even before the game prompted him to respond. Onoda was flustered to have been called out so bluntly, even though it would have to be obvious he was playing for one of the others. Still, his answer had to be an honest: "Yes!"


	5. Thursday

Don't have much to say, but there are some things about this chapter I really love. And some things that are a bit painful. There's lots of overlap.

Fun fact: This chapter contains what I consider the single worst dialog option in the game. (No, Onoda doesn't select it.)

* * *

"Hey, Onoda-kun."

Naruko's voice broke into Onoda's gloomy silence as he gathered up his books at the end of the day. He looked up and found his friend had swung by his class before practice and was leaning on his desk, trying to get his attention.

"Is something wrong?"

"Ah, nothing, really! I was just spacing out, that's all," Onoda hurriedly answered. It wasn't exactly a lie. It was a little thing bothering him, and practice would probably make him forget all about it anyway.

"So what are you spacing out about?" Naruko wanted to know. "You haven't talked about that game of yours all day. Did you lose a race or something? Because if you lost, you need to get back in there and fight harder!"

"No, it's not that." Onoda felt his face getting warm, and hoped his cheeks weren't getting pink. He shoved the rest of his things into his bag and stood so they could go. It was such a silly thing to let himself get down in the dumps over.

"Onoda," Imaizumi called him as he stepped into the hall. He had paused outside Onoda's class to wait. He easily fell into step at Onoda's side, fixing him with a small frown. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine! Sorry to make you worry. It's nothing worth complaining about, anyway."

"Go ahead and complain! Hotshot's already so worried he looks like he's gonna barf."

"Don't assume I'm like you."

Were they really worried? Then maybe it was better to just tell them, embarrassing as it was, so they would know not to worry about it. "It's just... I must be doing something wrong, because everyone's asked me on a date except Manami-kun," Onoda confessed all in a rush. (Technically he hadn't gotten one from Fukutomi, either, but he was sure there was some qualification he was missing to even start that route.) He quickly tried to sweep the words aside by adding, "We don't want to be late to practice, right?"

At least they couldn't argue with that.

As they made their way through the crowded hall, Naruko tried to break him out of his funk by teasing, "You're really popular all of a sudden, huh?"

"It's just a game," Onoda argued. Now he was sure his blush was showing, and he just hoped no one was listening because he was worlds away from being popular in real life! "And I don't want to be popular," he added.

Naruko threw an arm around his shoulders, and Onoda relaxed under the physical manifestation of his friend's support. "I understand how that could be hard, getting attention from everyone but the one person you like. Must be brutal, right, Hotshot?"

"You're able to reject them, right?" Imaizumi said from his other side.

"Mm," Onoda agreed. He was very grateful he hadn't hurt anyone's feelings. If anything they had encouraged him after being turned down.

It took a moment for him to remember that Imaizumi had this problem in real life, at least with the unwanted attention. He'd been stopped in the hall for confessions. He found love letters in his desk or locker every other week, sometimes from people he'd never spoken to. A girl in Onoda's class had even asked him to deliver a note to his friend. At least he was sure Imaizumi didn't have someone he liked who felt out of reach, but it was still thoughtless to complain about such a thing in front of him.

"Don't be so gloomy," Naruko was saying as they entered the club room. " _Obviously_ this guy you're so into likes you. One of you just has to speak up."

"I'm sorry, Imaizumi-kun!" Onoda cried, unable to contain himself. "I'm being so thoughtless, complaining about this when it's just a game, when your feelings are so much more important!" He bowed his head, unable to fully express his repentance.

The club room was dead silent in response to this outburst.

A moment later, Naruko was cackling so hard it was a wonder he could breathe.

"I know being frustrated because of a game is different from having to figure out how to turn people down in real life. I should have considered your feelings before bringing it up!"

Imaizumi lay a firm hand on Onoda's shoulder, prompting him to stop apologizing and look up. The subtle smile said he was already forgiven. "Your feelings are important too." Imaizumi's hand rubbed Onoda's shoulder gently as it slipped away again. "It's better to focus on the parts that make you happy."

"Yes!" Onoda felt his heart jump, his hope restored.

Imaizumi must have understood that Onoda had finally shaken off his gloom, because he let the subject lie and started changing for practice. Onoda followed suit, and Naruko recovered from his laughing fit to bump Onoda's shoulder again as he joined them.

After that, Onoda felt energized both for practice and for extra training afterwards. Today he was even able to spend extra time with this friends. (They hadn't exactly planned that, but neither Imaizumi nor Naruko wanted to cede the afternoon route they had planned to the other, and neither objected to Onoda joining them.) Riding blew all the dejected thoughts out of his head, until he was more than ready to go back and try again.

* * *

With each homework session Manami had become more and more chatty, until finally they hit a point where his attitude completely changed. Instead of being difficult, right at the start Manami smiled at him and said, "If we finish this quickly we'll have some free time, right?"

[ "Yes!" ]  
[ "You still need to work hard." ]  
[ "Not really." ]

"Yes!"

That study session was the easiest by far. Manami only lapsed into daydreaming twice. Onoda quickly finished the 'homework' memory game without having to constantly stop and get his attention.

As soon as he was done Manami asked him, "What would you like to do now?"

[ "Watch a movie." ]  
[ "Go for a walk." ]  
[ "Go out to a cafe." ]  
[ "What would you like to do?" ]  
[ "I'd like to be alone." ]

Onoda considered the options. Watching a movie wasn't much fun if he couldn't actually see it. Going out somewhere would hopefully give him time to talk with Manami. But then he was curious what Manami would pick.

"What would you like to do?"

"Hm. I guess I can't think of anything either," Manami answered. Obviously he couldn't hear Onoda's groan of disappointment. "Well, I'll at least walk you back."

They moved outside. Manami had visibly perked up since finishing the homework. Onoda just wished he could see it for more than the short time it would take to walk from Manami's dorm back to the on-campus one.

"It feels good to be outside. This is better than studying, right?"

"You can't wait to ride, huh?" Onoda said to the screen. Manami was walking his bike, making it obvious what his plans were after walking Onoda home. He could tell Manami would rather not be making the trip uphill at a walk. Still, the gesture was nice. It was better than nothing.

[ "This is nice." ]  
[ "Not really." ]  
[ "Are you looking forward to riding?" ]  
[ "You don't have to walk me." ]

"Are you looking forward to riding?" Onoda chose. He held himself tense, willing it to make Manami happy without encouraging him to leave.

"Is it that obvious?"

[ "It really is." ]  
[ "Just a guess." ]

"It really is."

"Hahaha! You're observant, Sakamichi-kun. You must know me well by now."

Onoda had to laugh as well. Practically the first thing he had learned about Manami was how much he loved riding!

Since he wasn't locked into following Manami, Onoda managed to select the wrong direction while distracted.

Manami stayed with him. "You get turned around easily, don't you? Or was there something over here you were interested in?"

Onoda could see a book store on the corner. Next to it was an arcade, a small family restaurant, and a convenience store. Maybe he had a second chance to suggest somewhere to go together. He selected the arcade.

"You want to go in there? I think I'll come with you!"

Finally he had made a good choice! Onoda whispered a fierce 'yes!' to himself as they moved inside.

"It looks like these fighting games are the kind where you choose your opponent. Should we challenge each other?"

[ _Accept_ ]  
[ _Reject_ ]  
[ _Leave_ ]

Onoda accepted the challenge and was allowed to play the fighting game as a short mini game. He wasn't good at fighting games to begin with, and Manami's skill was final boss level. He didn't land a single hit.

"I forgot to say: I'm actually very good at video games," Manami told him afterward. "When I was young I didn't have much else to do. Even though I often felt frustrated by them, it was something to do when I felt trapped, like I'd never be able to go outside again." The grin Manami had after winning faded, leaving him despondent. "I'm sure you don't want to hear about that."

[ "I'd like to hear about you." ]  
[ "Let's have fun instead." ]  
[ "Then let's leave." ]

"I'd like to hear about you," Onoda insisted. Why was it that Manami kept bringing up his past and then backpedaling? He wanted to know the rest!

"Hm? Then I guess I don't want to talk about it," Manami answered, some of the impish brightness coming back into his face. "But video games are more fun with two people. And much as I like winning I know it'll be more fun as a close competition! Let's find a game where our skill levels are closer."

[ "Okay." ]  
[ "No thanks." ]  
[ "I want a rematch." ]

"Okay." A rematch was not going to help in Onoda's case.

"Here's a driving game. Don't you think it would be a lot more fun if they had a cycling game?" Manami asked, startling a laugh out of Onoda. His best friends had both said the same thing! Manami was grinning, and there was a competitive spark in his eye. "Do you want to try this one?"

Onoda accepted and did his best, only to be beaten soundly once again.

"Not this one either, huh? What about the shooter? It's set up for two players."

In the shooting game they were on the same team, both trying to take out as many monsters as possible. Onoda kept having to cover Manami by taking out flying monsters before they dive-bombed him. The extra kills hiked his score above Manami's for the game.

"You have really good aim, Sakamichi-kun! Since you won, you should pick the next game."

Onoda had to select from a picture of part of the arcade. He thought he was selecting the claw game, but...

"The dancing game? Sure! Let's try it!"

He still stood a chance if he was hitting the buttons on the controller instead of actually dancing. Onoda felt fairly confident, right up until the game started.

He had somehow discovered one of the cut scenes, with Manami dancing. At first he was concentrating in the screen, but then he started and looked over at the camera as if noticing he was being watched. And then he smiled, wily and knowing enough to make Onoda gulp... And then he actually started dancing, not just stepping to the rhythm but getting his hips into it, moving his body to the music and adding extra little flourishes just for show.

Even if Onoda could have somehow kept up with the dance game during the cut scene how could he have possibly concentrated on the arrows? It was only a few seconds and it derailed him badly enough he could hardly follow the arrows when he was abruptly returned to the game screen.

Onoda failed spectacularly and he did not care. He still had a helpless grin pulling the edges of his mouth.

"Oh no, look at your score!" Manami teased. "What happened? Were you distracted by something?"

"You know exactly what distracted me!" Onoda protested out loud. Not that he minded for even a fraction of a second.

[ "I was thinking of something else." ]  
[ "You know what distracted me!" ]  
[ "It was an accident. Let me try again." ]  
[ "I'm just bad at this game." ]

Onoda bit his lip. Instinct said be diplomatic, but honestly with the way Manami was playing around with him he wanted to say it.

"You know what distracted me!"

"I do?" Manami pursed his lips and looked up slightly as if thinking hard. "Then it must be that you're thirsty! I am too. There's a convenience store outside where we can get something."

"You're teasing me," Onoda complained. Although it felt nice, Manami being open and playful with him.

They stopped at the convenience store for a drink before walking the rest of the way back to Onoda's dorm. Onoda kept looking over at Manami. He was savoring the small smile that had been on Manami's lips since they left the arcade. He wasn't sure if he'd stumbled on the best Easter egg in any game ever or glitched his way into a date, but he was too happy to care.

"You know, I've never been able to do this before," Manami finally said. "I'm glad you found this. It was fun to do something new."

[ "It was okay." ]  
[ "Let's do it again." ]  
[ "Let's do something else next time." ]  
[ "It wasn't that fun." ]

If Manami liked being able to do something new, he would want to do something else next time, right? Onoda was sure of it. Manami loved trying new things.

"Let's do something else next time."

"You feel that way too? Great! I'll look forward to next time!"

Onoda wished he had a chance to answer before Manami left him safely at the front door and rode away, "So will I."

* * *

For their first full team race Onoda decided to play it safe and make something for everyone. He had realized he was getting confessions from the characters who won, and this time a win would finally count for Manami. Maybe with a team win Manami would finally get his chance.

On a completely nonstrategic level, he actually felt guilty making a treat for just one person when he was supposed to look after all of them.

When he met his team beside the van and passed out homemade rice balls, he was sure he had made the right choice. Everyone reacted happily to getting a little extra breakfast before their drive to the course.

He was treated to a brief, chaotic scene once everyone had at least one rice ball.

"Thank you for preparing this. It's delicious," Fukutomi told him, his calm demeanor undermined by the grain of rice stuck to the corner of his mouth.

Arakita's sprite popped up next, "It's good, but it would be better with meat inside."

Toudou appeared opposite him with a smug smile. "You shouldn't be eating heavy foods right before a race. Thank our lovely Manager for being so thoughtful and bringing something that will give you energy."

Arakita's resting expression shifted to annoyance at Toudou, but he didn't get a chance to say anything before Izumida was added on Toudou's side. "He's right. It's better to have protein after training. For me, the salt ones are the best anyway. Thank you, Onoda-kun."

Shinkai appeared behind all of them and interrupted Arakita as well. "But the best thing about rice balls is you can have all kinds of different fillings! You could have chocolate and bacon if you wanted."

Onoda laughed both at the suggestion and the universal reaction of disgust Shinkai got from his teammates. Especially when Shinkai turned a look of hurt innocence at Arakita and protested that he had just said he wanted meat.

"Seconds, please!" Manami was suddenly in front of Onoda, not paying any attention to the argument between his upperclassmen. He held out his hand cutely.

Onoda knew he had a dopey smile stretching his face as he gave Manami another rice ball and watched him take a bite.

"It's rare to see you eat properly in the morning." Izumida stepped into frame a second time. Onoda assumed the third years were still debating the potential of bacon rice balls.

"That's because they're my favorite!"

"I thought you'd say it's because of who made them," Izumida answered. There was a faint glow of a blush on his cheeks, which made Onoda wonder if he was trying to prompt Manami or if he'd wanted to say it himself.

"That's right. Sakamichi-kun has become a really good cook," Manami agreed. Onoda was fairly sure he was teasing Izumida now.

[ "Would you like another, Izumida-san?" ]  
[ "Are you ready to go, Izumida-san?" ]

"Would you like another, Izumida-san?"

Onoda still had plenty to offer. He had anticipated Shinkai and Arakita's appetites and made the maximum number possible.

"Thank you. I wanted to ask if you would put a couple aside for after the race." Izumida turned from smiling at him to look over at Manami, who had half a rice ball stuffed in his mouth. "You should save some too, Manami-kun. Don't eat them all now."

"That sounds good! Will you do that, Sakamichi-kun? Then I'll come running to see you after the race." Onoda knew he was teasing, but the suggestion still made him giddy.

The race itself went smoothly. Their training paid off, and Onoda aced his support role. With the boosts from his cheering, the team grabbed each check point and finished well ahead of everyone else. Onoda was grinning with pride when they crossed the finish line. He loved seeing his team to victory.

For some reason when gameplay resumed it left him on the edge of the crowd around the finish line, not at the team tent where he expected to meet everyone. Onoda looked around, but he didn't see anyone from the team nearby.

"It's like you want me to get lost," Onoda complained. And after Manami had promised to come running to him!

Well, he was going to beat the game's tricks this time. He looked around and carefully picked out the goal archway and stage as landmarks. In past races their spot had been near the podium and a little to the right. Onoda set out to go straight for the stage.

Within two screens the game decided he couldn't see the stage with all the tents around, and then forced him into a detour, and then Onoda suddenly wasn't sure which direction he was aiming for. He was sure game was cheating to get him lost.

Maybe he was supposed to be lost so someone could find him. Onoda might forgive the game for setting up a cute moment like that. Especially if it was with Manami.

"Are you an idiot!?" boomed unexpectedly at him, making Onoda yelp. Arakita's face dominated the screen, that angry scowl suddenly right in his face. "Making me come looking for you after a race like that?"

"Wah, you're still scary when you're mad!" Onoda wailed.

Arakita took a step back. He was still scowling.

[ "I'm sorry!" ]  
[ "Don't yell at me!" ]

"I'm sorry!"

"Ch, what are you sorry for?" Arakita looked away. Something in the set of his shoulders seemed very tense. "I'm completely pissed off that you always manage to get lost. Either get better or stop apologizing."

[ "I'll keep trying to get better." ]  
[ "I'm glad you found me." ]  
[ "You're too harsh." ]

"I'll keep trying to get better."

There was a slight pause where Arakita's sprite changed, giving him the appearance of shifting uncomfortably.

"If you can keep up then I'll show you around. It's a real pain to have a manager that goes missing."

[ "You don't have to." ]  
[ "Thank you!" ]

"Oh," Onoda answered out loud. "That's actually really thoughtful." He would honestly be grateful for that. His sense of direction wasn't always the best in real life, and he was doing much worse in the game, where he could lose his landmarks.

"Thank you!"

Arakita stared at him for a second, then looked sideways again before speaking. "I'm not going out of my way to be nice. Let's go back to the tent. I'm not gonna come fish you out of another crowd, though. Got it?"

Onoda was very good and didn't laugh, but Arakita had sounded almost tsundere there, less combative than usual. He did make sure to follow close and not lose sight of Arakita. He knew there was no way he would get a second chance if he fell behind.

When they arrived at the tent Onoda didn't see the rest of the team around. He hoped they weren't looking for him too.

"I'm starved. I wish they'd hurry up."

"Sakamichi-kun, found you~" Onoda knew who that was even before Manami appeared. He had his jersey almost completely unzipped and his hair was even more messy than usual, but he had a bright look in his eyes like he hadn't spent his entire day riding hard. "I thought I could find you in that crowd and rescue you, but it looks like you made it back before me."

[ "Sorry to trouble you!" ]  
[ "Don't worry about me!" ]  
[ "I wasn't lost!" ]

"Sorry to trouble you!"

"I did promise I would come running after the race, right?"

Onoda felt giddy once again at the hint of affection, even as he remembered why Manami had said he would come running. He had an opening to get into his inventory (the game did not bother to differentiate between what was in the tent or in his pockets) and pull out a rice ball for Manami. He decided to take out two, since Arakita had said he was hungry.

"Don't worry about Onoda-chan getting lost," Arakita interrupted before Onoda could distribute the snacks. "I already said I'd look after him."

"I think I should be the one looking after Sakamichi-kun. We have more in common, right?"

"If you could do that you would have started looking after him from the day he arrived."

"Um." Onoda looked back and forth between the two of them. He still wanted a second to think about 'Onoda-chan' casually popping up in the text box all of a sudden, but he really felt like he wasn't following the conversation anymore. The happy sparkle was gone from Manami's eyes. Arakita didn't have the irritated scowl he wore when arguing with Toudou. Instead he was standing up straight, jaw clenched, staring Manami down with more resolution than anger.

They couldn't be fighting over him. It kind of sounded like they were fighting over him, but there was absolutely no way they were fighting over him.

Except this wasn't like real life, Onoda reminded himself. What if the game thought he was trying to romance both of them? In real life he could spend time with other people and it would be fine, but apparently the game thought he was trying to two-time Manami by bonding too much with the other boys.

[ "I don't want to trouble you. I'll find my own way around." ]  
[ "Do you two want something to eat?" ]  
[ "Please don't argue!" ]  
[ _Say nothing_ ]

No chance for Onoda to weigh in on who he liked most. He went for what he thought would be the best choice to break the tension.

"Do you two want something to eat?"

Instead of accepting, Manami took the rice balls from him and put them into Arakita's hands.

"You can have these, because I'm going to take Sakamichi-kun."

Onoda didn't get a choice about that. Manami grabbed his hand, and then it was a whirl of indistinct people making up the crowd. Manami led him through the crowd around the stage, through the temporary parking lot, and up a small hill that overlooked the track.

"Ah, I'm not sure where to go."

Onoda laughed. "Manami-kun, are you really jealous?" Once he thought Manami was winning the situation seemed more funny.

Finally the game gave him some options.

[ "Ahahaha! Manami-kun, are you jealous?" ]  
[ "Why did you bring me here?" ]  
[ _Turn around and leave_ ]

"I can't say that to you," Onoda said to himself. It would be taken the wrong way. He selected the second option.

"Why did you bring me here?"

Manami's frustrated expression softened. "I guess I couldn't help wanting to steal you. I was looking forward to eating some of the rice balls you made and napping through the award ceremony with you. Maybe I am a little jealous. You can laugh at me if you want."

[ "That sounds nice." ]  
[ "I won't laugh at you." ]  
[ "You're being silly." ]  
[ _Turn around and leave._ ]

"I wish I could tell you there's nothing to be jealous about," Onoda sighed as he picked the first option. "I guess I'd trip all over myself trying to say anything if I could really talk to you right now."

"That sounds nice."

"You don't think I'm being foolish?" Manami smiled at him. "You're too nice sometimes. You always choose the least provocative thing to say, yet I still find myself wanting to hear what you'll say next."

Maybe he hadn't completely screwed up Manami's route after all? Onoda leaned forward in intense concentration. His usual method was to heap attention on his bias and be as nice to them as possible, and he was already messing that up by getting attached to the other characters. If a game was set up so you had to go through any sort of rough patch to build the relationship, that was where he always messed up and needed a walkthrough. This next dialogue option might be a turning point and he needed to be prepared to get it right.

But he wasn't given a chance to speak. Manami continued, "If you've realized I'm more difficult to get along with than Arakita-san, I won't hold it against you. Is it okay if I say I have a feeling, if we can somehow make it through the next few days..."

When Manami looked him in the eyes, Onoda felt so sure he was trying to tell him something. There was something he hadn't unlocked the right hints to understand. "I honestly did want to see you after the race today. Right now I'm afraid I'll say something I'll regret. You'll have to forgive me."

With that Manami disappeared. Onoda blinked once, twice. He used the controls to look around, but he was alone.

"No!" It finally got through his head that Manami was gone. "No, I completely messed up! I can't believe it! What do I do?" What if he couldn't get a good ending with Manami now? After getting his heart so invested in the other boy he didn't want to give up and start over. "I thought it was finally going well!" he lamented.

At a loss, he tried to go back to the tent. Shinkai found him when he got turned around in the crowd again and brought him back. When they reached the tent he announced, "Thank Yasutomo for telling me where to find you!" and laughed at Arakita's annoyed outburst.

Manami joined the team on the podium, but he was uncharacteristically quiet and subdued, and he disappeared again before Onoda was allowed to get close.

Onoda talked to each member of the team over and over in search of dialog options that would explain what was happening.

Arakita finally got what he was after and offered reassurance in his own way. "Don't waste time worrying about Manami. He's a pain, but since he's finally gotten serious he'll be fine. By the way, you'd better look after him starting tomorrow."

If they really had been fighting over him, it sounded like Manami had somehow won. Onoda allowed himself to smile at Arakita's contradictory declaration that Manami was okay and that he needed Onoda's attention.

Still, the game didn't give him the questions he wanted to ask. Was there a reason that Manami, who was usually laid back, had suddenly been so jealous? Why had he been he so upset that he suddenly left? Was there anything Onoda could do?

Each one of them finally told him point-blank to talk to Manami again tomorrow. Toudou even echoed Arakita's declaration that it was his responsibility to look after Manami now.

There were no confessions to turn down today. Onoda could almost hear each of the other routes closing to him. It was like they were giving him their blessing to pursue Manami. It didn't make sense. Hadn't he just messed up?

If he still had a chance Onoda was going to seize it with both hands. He would keep pursuing Manami with everything he had.

* * *

When he started the next day Onoda expected something dramatic to happen. He prepared himself for an emotional confession, at the very least.

While Manami was certainly happy to see him, and apologized for taking him out and then leaving him so suddenly, no further revelations seemed to be forthcoming. Manami was friendly and easygoing, no different from usual. Practice went smoothly as ever, right up until the rest of the team had left.

Manami came back late once again, but this time he was missing his usual cheerful smile. He had road rash up and down his right side. There were scrapes on his cheek and jaw, and his leg below his bike shorts. His arm was the worst, scraped raw from his elbow to the heel of his hand, which was gouged so badly it left blood on his handlebars.

In silence, Manami dismounted his bike by the main gate. He stared back down towards the street instead of looking at Onoda, but the wounds on his face were still clearly visible in profile. He lifted his injured hand and licked a bloody spot on his wrist.

Onoda couldn't believe there was actually an option to leave Manami alone after a cut scene like that. He hurried to where Manami was.

"Oh, no, Manami-kun!" he cried in real life.

In the game: "What happened?"

"There was more traffic than I expected and I fell. It's no big deal."

"Of course it's a big deal! You're hurt!" Onoda spluttered, waiting for the game to give him something to say instead of lingering on Manami's injuries. "You took off your gloves again!" he scolded. They would have at least taken the bite out of the injury to Manami's poor hand.

The game did allow him to say what he wanted, amid the other options of breaking down crying or chewing Manami out.

"Of course it's a big deal! You're hurt!"

"Don't worry. It won't affect my performance. It'll be nothing by tomorrow."

Fortunately, there was an option to take Manami to the school infirmary. Unfortunately, there was no one there. He would have to patch Manami up himself.

Also unfortunately, Manami wasn't cooperating.

"If you leave it alone it will disappear soon. It doesn't matter."

"Stop saying that! It does matter if you're hurt," Onoda blurted out.

[ "I don't want to see you hurt!" ]  
[ "Stop being so stubborn!" ]  
[ "Fine, I'll leave it alone." ]

Not for the first time, Onoda wished he could say a lot more than the options he was being offered.

"I don't want to see you hurt!"

"But it doesn't hurt for me, so it doesn't mean anything."

Manami's sprite kept changing for each line of the conversation, subtle shifts in an expression Onoda couldn't completely read. He looked like he was in pain. More than that, he was like a cornered, wounded animal. The hard look in his eyes was frightening, as if he might lash out if touched.

"Oh no," Onoda said softly. "What happened?" This went deeper than a fall. Were they getting into painful back story territory? "I don't like this."

Manami clenched his injured hand and dug his nails savagely into the wounds until blood pooled in his upturned palm.

"Does this hurt? Is it painful for you?"

"Stop hurting yourself!" Onoda had seen worse in games. He had the whole Angel Guardian series, where half the endings involved one of the love interests dying to protect the main character. Yet seeing this felt like a blow right to his heart.

The game did not give him an option to make Manami stop.

[ "Yes" ]  
[ "No" ]  
[ _Leave him alone_ ]

"Yes."

"How could this sort of thing hurt you?"

[ "Because it's my job to look after you!" ]  
[ "Because it's upsetting!" ]  
[ "Because I care about you!" ]  
[ _Leave him alone_ ]

Onoda made his choice almost without thinking. It was the only thing that made sense.

"Because I care about you!"

Manami slowly unclenched his hand.

"You don't understand."

[ "Of course I do." ]  
[ "No, I don't." ]  
[ _Leave him alone_ ]

"No, I don't."

It was an honest selection, but all Onoda could think about was what could he do if it was wrong? He was so bad at navigating painful spots. He wanted to help but always picked the wrong thing to say.

"I don't understand your feelings either."

It seemed for a moment that the conversation was over, and that Onoda had failed. But even though Manami had gone quiet, he didn't move. Onoda was free to leave, or talk to him again. Or, he realized, get at his inventory.

"Sakamichi-kun, you..." Manami's sprite came back, this time holding the sports bottle Onoda had handed him in both hands. "You kept this? Have you been carrying it all this time, just in case I needed you? No one's ever..."

[ "Please take this back." ]  
[ "I don't want it anymore." ]  
[ "I promised." ]

"I promised." And he had meant it, Onoda thought firmly. "This time I'm going to help you," he added out loud.

"I made you promise to come running, and you did. I don't understand you, but I'll let you do whatever you want."

This triggered a mini game based on bandaging Manami's wounds. He started with Manami's hand since it was in the worst shape. Finishing that unlocked another bit of dialogue from Manami.

"I hate this. I wish I could take your pain for myself."

His arm was next. It was oddly satisfying to have the scrapes clean and bandaged neatly. Onoda's hands were more steady on the controller than they ever could have been in real life.

"I wonder if I saw you injured would it be painful? Maybe then I would understand."

Onoda tried not to hold his breath as he cleaned Manami's leg. If he didn't do well enough, would he miss the rest of what Manami wanted to say to him? He wanted to hear it all the way to the end.

"The more I think about it, the more I feel a pressure in my chest saying, 'I don't want that.' I can barely stand seeing your unhappy face."

Manami closed his eyes for the last section and kept them closed even after Onoda had placed the last bandage on his cheek. A frown creased between his eyebrows after the bandaging game finished and he went back to a simple sprite against the school infirmary background.

"I hate this part. I feel like I'm just something for you to play with. Sakamichi-kun, I-"

Manami froze mid-sentence, interrupted by a new set of dialogue options.

[ "I'm just trying to help." ]  
[ "Then just think of it as a game." ]  
[ "Don't complain!" ]  
[ _Leave him alone_ ]

"Why can't I have an option to not interrupt him?!" Onoda cried. It felt like Manami was a breath away from explaining what was so wrong. Onoda never would have interrupted in real life! He didn't even know what to say.

The cursor gave a warning flash and skipped to the last option.

"No!" With a blind scramble of buttons, Onoda managed to at least select something other than walking away from Manami.

"Don't complain!"

"I'm sorry," Onoda wailed. The first option would have been better!

Once he was unfrozen, Manami laughed. His earlier anguish was fading. Not abruptly gone from one line to the next, Onoda noticed. Whoever had made the game had lovingly coded dozens of in-between sprites even for Manami's pained expressions.

"That's right. I've been a lot of trouble. If only I could make it easy for you." Manami opened his eyes, and Onoda could almost swear the virtual boy was looking right at him when he said, "Please don't give up on me, Sakamichi-kun."

* * *

The next day Manami still had bandages on his cheek and hand, though the game had healed the rest of his injuries overnight. The injury to his hand was a plot point, keeping him from his usual hard practice for the day. Onoda suspected the bandage on his cheek was just there to look pitiful and cute.

Manami spent practice going between the rollers (not riding so hard as to put pressure on his hand) or working out with Izumida (at least they were both happy with each other's company). He was so well behaved Onoda kept expecting to turn around and find he'd pulled his vanishing act again.

He also spent the whole day calling Onoda 'Manager.' Onoda didn't want to think it was unusual. They all called him that, especially during practice. He interpreted it as a gesture of respect, although Toudou actually contrived to make it sound like a cute nickname. Yet he couldn't stop thinking that he was used to seeing his name. Even if it was omitted or replaced by pronouns in the spoken dialog, it felt so much more personal that Manami used his name.

Had he damaged their relationship? He was never good at arguments, and Manami wasn't telling him if he was upset or not, so Onoda kept checking on him over and over.

Finally Manami broke the tension and offered Onoda his uninjured hand. "Will you come with me? Manager... No, Sakamichi-kun."

[ _Accept_ ]  
[ _Reject_ ]

Onoda accepted immediately.

The game shifted to a simple cut scene. First it was just a series of still frames as Manami led him up the smooth hill that sloped up behind the school, leaning forward more and more until he broke into a run. Onoda could see Manami clasping his hand tight the whole way.

At the top of the hill Manami turned to face him with the late afternoon sun behind him. A breeze caught him from behind, ruffling his hair and carrying a few stray leaves by Onoda's face. It reminded Onoda of his very first view of Manami, except he could swear that warm smile was even more beautiful now.

Manami reached for him. When he took his hand back he was holding a leaf, which Onoda imagined would have been caught in his hair or on his glasses. Gazing meaningfully at Onoda through half-lidded eyes, he brought the leaf to his lips.

The cut scene ended. Onoda's cheeks were suspiciously hot. "Are you flirting with me?" He had thought Manami was flirting a few times before, but this was something else.

When the scene faded in again Manami's playful smile was not obscured at all by his leaf.

"I thought that would be fun, but now I want to climb with you for real even more."

[ "What do you want?" ]  
[ "Why did you bring me here?" ]  
[ "I've changed my mind. I'm going back." ]

"I want to climb with you too," Onoda answered. Why wasn't that a choice? Manami kept saying that and he wanted to say it back every time. He felt the same.

"What do you want?"

"I want to steal you for a little while this Saturday. I feel like I've missed practice today."

"There is no way you don't already practice on Saturdays," Onoda answered. "Wait, are you asking me on a date?"

[ "I would love to." ]  
[ "Maybe next time." ]

Onoda's heart was actually racing with excitement as he finally accepted.

"I would love to."


	6. Friday

I had someone ask if I play dating sim/otome games. I do like them, and I tried to build the basics of how the game works around things I've liked, didn't like, or wished I could do. (Since my favorite series is Rune Factory, an RPG w/ dating sim elements, I was actually worried there would be a bias in that direction!) Once I had the basic outline + what events I needed I focused on the characters and let them drive the story. I really hope the final result has been fun for everyone to read.

At least I didn't give Onoda the problem I always have in dating sims: "I want that one. *points to character who can't be romanced*"

Geography! Assuming they're starting from Chiba city in Chiba prefecture or nearby (it's about the right distance from Akiba, at least) and Imaizumi's aim is to take Onoda to an overall mountainous region, there are several places they could go to that seem to take about the same amount of time via train. I chose a spot in Saitama prefecture because it was closest to being the opposite direction from Hakone. (Tried to pick real routes. There are other potential climbing routes in the area as well.)

Also I love Naruko and I can't decide if he's the best wingman or the worst.

Is it finally fluffy first date time? Yes. Yes it is.

* * *

"Do you have any plans this weekend?"

Onoda had been in the middle of a happy daydream. He kept trying to picture different ideas for his date with Manami: sharing a parfait in a cute café, watching a beautiful sunset together, or even walking hand-in-hand around Akiba (that wouldn't happen, but he could dream.)

The first thing he thought of when Naruko brought up weekend plans was inevitably, "I'll get to spend all day Saturday with Manami! Although I still can't ride with him."

"Seriously?"

"I want to. He keeps saying we should ride together, but I can't find a way to actually do it. I mean, I really want to, but that's not how the game works," Onoda tried to explain. Even if they couldn't do that, the thought of getting a special Saturday with Manami made him ridiculously happy.

Naruko gave Imaizumi a look, but when he didn't get a response he pushed on. "So I thought of a better idea for how to spend _our_ Saturday. What if we try to scope out the other teams participating in the Inter-High?"

"Huh?"

Imaizumi interjected and made the plan into something more practical. "It's almost impossible we'll just run into one of the other teams. More importantly, we can choose somewhere to do long-distance training under different conditions."

"Really? How far can we go?" The thought of a Saturday biking with his friends definitely had Onoda excited.

Naruko had stopped giving Imaizumi a look for shooting down his idea and was grinning wide enough to say he knew they had found the perfect thing.

"I'll show you how to bring your bike on the train," Imaizumi promised. "What about Saitama? We could go west and start with climbing Maruyama, or the Mt. Dodaira Observatory Climb."

"Hey, you're planning on making it all mountains!" Naruko protested. "First you act like it was your idea, then you don't even pick a balanced training menu!"

"It was my idea."

"I was the one who mentioned taking Onoda on a training trip this morning."

"I researched potential locations last night."

"I bet you only thought of places to take Onoda! Think you're going to leave me behind?"

Imaizumi was quiet for a beat longer than usual as they gave each other measuring stares. Onoda thought they must be especially annoyed at each other for having the same idea this time, since they didn't usually argue over his head. Perhaps they had both been proud to come up with those weekend plans. That thought gave Onoda a warm feeling, so that he couldn't help smiling.

"No, you need to train at climbing the most. Plus I'd have to put up with you complaining if you were left behind."

"Hey! Why are you talking like you get to pick the location? If you're already going that far, at least pick somewhere like Osaka so Onoda can appreciate the food. Besides, the pickings in Saitama are too slim!"

"That's twice as far, and there are plenty of places to chose from in Saitama," Imaizumi answered.

"Not that." Naruko leaned across Onoda's knees and stage whispered at Imaizumi, much too loud for Onoda to miss, "If you look at sprinters, there's no cute guys in Saitama at all. That's got to go for climbers as well."

"What?" Onoda looked between them in confusion.

Imaizumi did not want to make eye contact with either of them. Naruko looked a little too gleeful. "It can't hurt to look, right?"

"I thought we were training."

"Yeah, but lightning can strike at any time. What if the perfect guy appears right in front of you? In that case, you can trust me to help you stand out! Whoever you want I'll chase them down for you!"

"Please don't chase anyone! Is this because of the game?"

They nodded, Imaizumi with a stoic frown and Naruko with too much enthusiasm.

"It's just a game!" Onoda protested.

"But you told us your type because of that, right? Of course we have to help. I'll help, anyway. Would you believe how many races Hotshot has been in and he can't think of a single person worth mentioning? At least you won't have to worry about his standards."

Onoda held up his hands in panicked protest. "It's okay! You don't need to look."

"What if I just happen to find someone who's, let's see. . ." Naruko braced his fingers on his forehead as if thinking hard. "Let's say he's totally stubborn but somehow patient. He looks after the people he likes and pushes them to do their best, not to mention believes in them to the point where it looks like he's being harsh by not pulling them. He can be kind. Sometimes he's even thoughtful. I'm gonna throw in attractive, too. Like the love interest in one of your favorite anime."

"Is that all you wanted to say?" Imaizumi asked. His voice was low and tight, strangely defensive compared to other disagreements Onoda had heard between them.

"I told you: If you don't say something than I will."

Onoda almost wanted to ask if this was a real person Naruko was talking about, but he was afraid that would be interpreted as interest and Naruko really would try to chase someone for him.

"Please don't worry about it! I'm not really looking for someone. The game is just like reading a manga with different endings to choose from. Really." He should keep telling himself that, because it was starting to feel less and less that way for him.

"This is why I told him we should focus on training, and let you enjoy your game," Imaizumi added, putting up a wall of practicality to help hide Onoda's embarrassment.

"Thank you." Onoda worried about them making such a big deal about it, but they meant well. It still made his head spin to think he had friends who not only liked him, but thought he was good enough that other people should like him too. Imaizumi was such a kind person and Naruko cared so much.

Naruko, however, wasn't quite ready to let it go. "Anyway, if you do find someone you'll know as soon as you ride with them for the first time! Your heart will be pounding like you just sprinted to the limit and you'll never want to see them get away, _or_ fall behind! Right?"

Imaizumi was pointedly refusing to acknowledge this declaration. Onoda didn't feel that he could say it right now, but he had felt that way riding with both of them the first time.

It made him wonder all over again what it would feel like to ride beside Manami. Would they feel a spark like Naruko was describing?

"Can we just train together this weekend? I would really like that," Onoda requested.

Any other time he would have tried to explain that what he liked in a game and what he wanted in real life weren't necessarily the same thing. Onoda didn't want to live out a dating sim. He didn't know what he would do if he found himself in the middle of a harem for real, except maybe collapse under the weight of sheer awkwardness. But then how many times had he caught himself thinking about what he would do if Manami were real? He'd never felt like that before.

Maybe he did need a little time to get his mind off of this game.

* * *

Manami dug up a 'mama bike' for their first date. When he appeared to pick Onoda up he looked very pleased with himself.

"Toudou-san helped me find it. If you sit on the back it would be easier than trying to balance on the handlebars."

[ "Thank you!" ]  
[ "You don't have to worry about me." ]  
[ "What about your road racer?" ]  
[ "Can't we just walk?" ]

"What about your road racer?"

Manami had probably found the best solution open to them, but Onoda couldn't help hoping the game would pick up on the fact that there were two bikes available and just let him ride one.

"That's right, compared to a road racer the frame is a lot heavier and you can't change gears. But in fighting games all the best characters secretly train with weighted clothes, don't they?"

"You really did ask me out to help you train!" It was too funny for Onoda to feel disappointed. Besides, even if they weren't calling it a date he was getting a day with Manami!

[ "It is a good idea!" ]  
[ "So you asked me out to help you train?" ]  
[ "I don't think it works like that." ]

Onoda almost chose to say his words to Manami, but he hesitated. "What if you take it the wrong way," he muttered to himself, and chose the safe option. There was no telling what tone the game would assume he was using.

"It is a good idea!"

"As long as you don't mind helping me, I'm happy. I'm sure it will be fun!"

Onoda put the picnic lunch he had made in the front basket, then climbed on the back. The view changed so he was looking at Manami's back.

"Let me pick one of the training routes you gave me. I've been looking forward to riding this with you."

The time Onoda spent looking at Manami's back made him feel strange. He honestly had the feeling of being shielded from the wind, like the space Manami made for him was the calm eye of the storm. He felt safe.

He felt like he was falling for Manami so hard he didn't know what to do.

They talked a little. The game gave him notes of when Manami seemed to be exerting himself, and let him see that wild smile on his face as he threw himself into the climb in spite of the extra weight. Finally the game gave Onoda an option that made him grin in triumph.

[ "This is so much fun!" ]  
[ "Can we stop for a little while?" ]  
[ "I want to go home." ]  
[ _Hang on to him_ ]

Onoda immediately chose to give Manami a hug. The view shifted then, so his cheek was obviously against Manami's shoulder.

Manami looked back at him. His face showed surprise for just a second. "Sakamichi-kun?" Then he smiled. "That's right, I don't want to lose you!"

Onoda almost didn't want to stop for lunch. Manami chose an overlook a little past one particularly steep peak. He bought some iced tea from the vending machine and escorted Onoda to a small grassy area a safe distance from the road.

The picnic scene was ordinary enough. Manami thanked him for the food and asked if he was having a good time. Onoda couldn't stop smiling with happiness. Even if it was like a hundred date scenes he'd seen before, this was special just because of who was sitting across from him.

"You should have some tea," Manami said, offering the half-empty bottle. "I'd like it if we can share."

Onoda caught the not-so-innocent twist in Manami's smile and the downright mischievous look in his eyes, and felt his cheeks light up like a flame.

Of course he chose to accept the offer. Onoda caught himself swallowing around a dry throat in real life. Indirect kissing was one of his favorite romantic tropes, but especially when it was offered like that. Manami knew exactly what he was implying when he said he wanted to share.

He took another drink after Onoda, looking much too pleased with himself. Onoda made a helpless noise in the back of his throat. It was the closest he could come to sharing a kiss with Manami. It was the closest he had felt to sharing kiss with anybody.

"Usually I don't like long lunch breaks, but let's stay here a while longer. Besides, I got a good workout! You're heavier than I thought!"

[ "What do you mean, heavy!?" ]  
[ "You're the one who wanted to train today!" ]  
[ "I want to go home." ]  
[ "Let's stay here a little longer." ]

Onoda didn't understand why the game gave him so many chances to reject Manami. Maybe to trip him up if he didn't select fast enough. This selection he could make lightning-quick.

"Let's stay here a little longer."

They looked up at the clouds for a while. Manami made mountains out of them and traced roads up the sides (with the game outlining what he was talking about for Onoda's benefit.) Onoda picked out cliche shapes like a fluffy rabbit and a dog. Maybe the was making the wrong choices because Manami met each answer by saying, "Hm, I don't see it. Which cloud was it, again?" or "Maybe from this angle?"

Or maybe he was doing something right, because when Onoda looked over to check if Manami was teasing him he found the other boy wasn't looking at the clouds at all. He was treated to an image of Manami rolled up on one side, head pillowed on his arm as he smiled at Onoda.

"Thank you for coming with me today. Spending time with you is pretty fun. How do you feel? "

[ "I like spending time with you." ]  
[ "It's my job to look after you." ]  
[ "Well, you are a little troublesome." ]

"I like spending time with you."

Manami's face lit up with the brightest smile. "Why's that? I mean, aren't I a lot of trouble?"

Onoda couldn't help laughing a little to himself. "If you want to be praised I can think of a few compliments for you," he teased.

[ "Because you're cute." ]  
[ "Because you're fun to be with." ]  
[ "This way I know you're not getting in trouble!" ]  
[ "You want me to praise you?" ]

Onoda had thought Manami was cute since he first saw him on the cover. He loved Manami's smile, even when he had done something like skipping class again. Still, he thought of how much he enjoyed the hours he had put into the game and his selection was clear.

"Because you're fun to be with."

"Maybe I asked the wrong question. Oh well. We feel the same, so I'm happy. Although it would be even more fun if we could race together! I hope we can do that soon, don't you?"

[ "Yes!" ]  
[ "Not really." ]

"Yes!" Onoda answered out loud as he made his selection. His heart echoed Manami's insistent desire to ride together.

"Then we'll definitely be able to ride together someday! As long as our hearts want the same thing, I'm sure we will."

Onoda's heart was pounding hard in agreement.

* * *

Monday after their first date Manami greeted him by saying, "Thank you for going with me the other day. I had a lot of fun! Do you think we can do it again some time?"

When Onoda confirmed that he would like to go out with Manami again he got a happy response, and then the rest of the day proceeded normally. He had hoped for a little more fanfare now that they were dating.

The achievement didn't get buried completely. If Manami didn't want to make a big deal about it, the rest of the team was ready to fill in.

Toudou, for example, was happy to say in front of the entire team, "Manami borrowed an old bike of mine saying he wanted to take you somewhere. It sounds like you finally got that special Saturday you were waiting for. "

[ "Yes, it was wonderful!" ]  
[ "I don't know what you're talking about." ]

He just had to bring it up in front of Manami, but Onoda wasn't about to lie. "Yes, it was wonderful!"

Toudou had one hand over his mouth, looking like he might cry happy, dramatic tears. "I'm so glad! I knew you were perfect for each other, of course!"

"No you didn't," Arakita told him.

"As if _you_ knew."

Arakita made a sour face in annoyance. "Shinkai was the one who told us to leave them alone."

"Actually, I remember Izumida saying Manami seemed very happy since meeting our new Manager."

Izumida apparently didn't have anyone to pass the credit to. He held up his hands, flustered. "It was just a comment."

"It doesn't matter who noticed first," Toudou decided, taking back center stage. "What matters is that those two are happy. However, Manami!" Toudou pointed dramatically. "Now it's your duty to take responsibility for stealing our cute Manager!"

Manami only looked excited at this declaration. "Then can I please keep borrowing the mama bike? There's a lot more places I want to go with Sakamichi-kun."

Onoda was glad Manami seemed completely unembarrassed by the scene. His face burned and he could barely sit still from the embarrassment, while Manami kept smiling as if proud of the fact that he had captured Onoda's heart.

Even once they finally were alone Manami didn't give him a break.

"I guess we can't be surprised everyone butted in with the way things have happened. You know, I have been happier since I met you. I'm glad you chose to become our manager. Now that it's come up, I'd like to know your feelings."

[ "I love being the cycling team's manager." ]  
[ "It's okay." ]  
[ "Why do you ask?" ]

Manami looked so hopeful, Onoda didn't know how he could pick any other option.

"I love being the cycling team's manager."

"Just as a manager, huh?" Manami laughed out loud. "I guess I asked for that. Hm. Would you mind if I stayed with you while you work, Manager?"

[ "I would enjoy your company." ]  
[ "I need to concentrate." ]

"I would enjoy your company," Onoda chose happily.

It was a little like doing homework with Manami, only with the frustrating parts removed. Manami interrupted at various moments, asking little questions or making observations about how well Onoda looked after everyone. He seemed perfectly happy just doing that.

It was a small thing, but Onoda enjoyed even the little bit of extra time in Manami's company.

* * *

Onoda had to turn down five polite invitations to join the team at the summer festival. He was waiting for Manami to finally say 'do you want to go with me?' but instead he found himself on the day of the festival doing his usual check up on everyone's stats. Alone. No invitation from the person he wanted to go with.

With an explosive sigh Onoda flopped back on his floor. "I did something wrong again. I know it!" And after he had finally reached a point where Manami was interested in dating him. Maybe if he'd gone with the group Manami would have been there, the same way he'd needed to support everyone to win the team race.

There was the sound of someone knocking, and then Manami interrupted him. He was wearing a yukata with a light and dark blue check pattern. Onoda immediately shot up straight again.

"Everyone said you didn't want to come to the festival, but I thought I would ask just in case."

[ "I'd love to go with you." ]  
[ "Maybe next time." ]

"I'd love to go with you."

"Great! Let's go!"

Onoda always liked seeing festivals in anime and games. Everything looked so bright and fun, and the crowds weren't overwhelming. He felt shy going alone in real life.

This time he was determined to enjoy himself with Manami. They ran into the other club members briefly. Only Toudou was blunt enough to comment on the fact that Onoda had declined the team trip to go with Manami, and then he added that they looked good together.

Manami took him over to the games. "These look fun. Which prize do you like best?"

[ "The candies." ]  
[ "The plush toy." ]  
[ "The mask." ]  
[ "The goldfish." ]  
[ "The yo-yo." ]  
[ "I don't like any of these." ]

Onoda considered the question seriously. The mask resembled the hero from the most recent Kamen Rider, but the toy he could see resembled the Mage plushie currently on his bed. (Sheep version. He had a limited edition human Mage figure that stood proudly alongside his Himeno and Arimaru figures, but the plush was so soft and huggable he couldn't resist cuddling it.)

"The plush toy."

Manami rolled up his sleeves and announced, "Okay, I'm going to win you the biggest one!"

He tried the dart game and finished with three points, far short of the forty-five (a perfect bulls-eye with all three darts) needed for the huge plush toy on top of the prize pyramid.

Onoda thought his sheepish smile was a lot cuter than the toy, anyway.

"Oops. Looks like I missed this time."

[ "Will you try again?" ]  
[ "That's okay. We can do something else." ]  
[ "That's too bad." ]

"That's okay. We can do something else."

"No, I'm not going to give up yet. I'm going to try again!"

The second time Manami got a lucky hit that gave him enough points to win the small plush.

"Not again. I wanted to get you the big one."

[ "Will you try again?" ]  
[ "This one is good." ]  
[ "I like this one more. It's cute!" ]  
[ "I don't really want it." ]

"I like this one more. It's cute!"

Onoda was honestly happier that Manami had somehow won the toy he had seen at the beginning. He reached back, snagged his Mage plush from the foot of his bed, and lay it beside him as if it was the prize Manami had won him.

Manami laughed out loud. "No, you're so much cuter, Sakamichi-kun! What do you want to play next?"

After a moment of consideration, Onoda chose the cork gun gallery. It was a lot easier to aim, and his reflexes were better honed to games than in real life. He managed to knock a box of candy off the shelf on his first try.

[ _Eat them_ ]  
[ _Give them to Manami_ ]  
[ _Save them for later_ ]

He immediately chose to give them to Manami.

"Thank you!" Manami's sprite changed to have the opened box in his hand. "These are good. You should have one too. Say 'ah.'"

[ "Ah. . ." ]  
[ "That's too embarrassing." ]  
[ "I don't want any." ]

It was absolutely way too embarrassing for Onoda. But then it wasn't like anyone could judge him, right?

"Ah. . ."

Manami held up one of the candies like he was about to feed it to Onoda, but then he stopped and popped it in his own mouth instead.

"Just kidding!" he teased, but didn't leave Onoda to squirm in embarrassment for too long. "Here, this one is for you." This time the candy disappeared from his outstretched hand.

[ "It's good." ]  
[ "That was mean!" ]

"It's good."

"Then we can share them," Manami decided. "What do you want to do next?"

Onoda chose to keep playing the games. They both lost at the ring toss a few times. Onoda managed to hook a colorful balloon yo-yo. Manami broke five paddles trying to catch him what he deemed to be the best goldfish, apparently based on it being the least cooperative.

Even though he knew Manami was fiercely competitive and would never back down in a race, Onoda found he wasn't surprised to see how he laughed even when he lost at the games. Onoda thought that Manami might feel the way he did, that he was simply enjoying being together more than anything.

"It looks like everyone's getting ready for the fireworks," Manami finally said. "I know the perfect spot. Take my hand so we don't get separated."

[ _Take his hand_ ]  
[ "That's too embarrassing." ]  
[ "Let's go watch them with everyone else." ]  
[ "I'd rather go home." ]

Onoda chose to take Manami's hand and let himself be led through an indistinct crowd. After a few screens the crowd thinned out and Manami was leading him uphill in the dark. (He knew he should have expected Manami to go for a high place by now.) When they reached the top of the slope they had a perfect view with the other festival-goers below and the dark canvas of sky above.

The show started with a bright burst of blue and white sparks before moving on to more complex patterns. Onoda's favorite was one he would probably never see in a real fireworks show: the outline of a bicycle.

He glanced over at Manami, hoping to see him smiling at the fireworks, and found Manami was smiling at him instead.

"Sakamichi-kun. . . I. . ."

[ "What is it?" ]  
[ "Can we talk after the fireworks?" ]

"What is it?"

Manami clutched his yukata over his heart. "I don't know what to say. My pulse feels so strong every time I'm with you. I feel alive. You're the only one who makes me feel this way. Do you understand?"

[ "I understand." ]  
[ "I feel the same." ]  
[ "No, not really." ]

Onoda did feel like his own pulse jumped a little. Was this the moment when Manami would confess to him? "I feel the same."

"But I'm having trouble finding the right words. Sakamichi-kun, what is this feeling to you?"

Maybe this was the moment when he would confess to Manami?

[ "I care about you." ]  
[ "I enjoy being with you." ]  
[ "I think you're cute." ]  
[ "Nothing." ]

It was a toss-up between the first two. Both were true, but when he could only pick one Onoda wasn't sure which he wanted.

The look on Manami's face was serious, his eyes soft with an expression of longing. Onoda wondered if he really didn't know or if he just wanted Onoda to say it.

"I enjoy being with you," Onoda guessed.

"I'm glad." Manami's smile as he said the line was obviously forced. His lips pressed too tightly together and the look in his eyes didn't change.

[ "I'm glad too." ]  
[ "Maybe we should go back to watching the fireworks." ]  
[ "What's wrong?" ]

"What's wrong?"

Manami looked down for his next line. "I thought this might be the right time." When he looked at Onoda again his smile was more natural. "This was my first time coming to the festival with someone! I'm glad we could come together. It was fun."

After that, Manami turned back to the fireworks. Onoda kept looking over at him, watching flashes of colored light across his face, but Manami didn't return any of his glances.

"I'm still missing something," Onoda said to himself. He almost didn't want to see the game end but he wanted so much to know what was happening with Manami. He couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Imaizumi was right. I do need a break to focus on my own training. I keep wishing we were going to Hakone tomorrow, even though I know you're not going to be there," he confessed.

Of course Manami didn't answer.


	7. Saturday at dawn

Jolting out of a vague nightmare about being too slow to escape some indistinct, clawed person, Onoda found himself awake more than an hour before his alarm. After some time hiding his face in his pillow, trying to force his brain back into sleep, he gave up and dragged himself out of bed.

Since he was awake anyway, there was still plenty of time to play at least one more day in his game before he had to get ready to meet Naruko and Imaizumi. Onoda got some toast and a glass of juice for breakfast, and turned on Racing Heart Manager once again.

Once again the day after their date progressed normally, with only a few comments about the festival. Shinkai hoped he had fun. Arakita commented he seemed to have gotten lost on the way to the fireworks. Toudou lingered after practice while he waited for Manami, texting and embarrassing Onoda with comments that they had looked cute together and he hoped they had found a nice private spot to watch the fireworks.

Manami himself didn't say anything about it, but offered to help tidy up the club room. Usually he would be off to keep riding, presumably until he exhausted any energy he had left. Onoda hoped that meant he would get another afternoon with Manami as he had after the first date.

Apparently Manami had a reason for staying. They quickly finished checking that everything was tidy in the club building, but then Manami stayed frozen where he was. When Onoda went to check on him he found Manami staring at the ground with his hands clenched.

"Sakamichi-kun... I want to know how you feel. I can't stand waiting any more. I hate just wondering what might happen... Please, tell me."

[ "I'm happy that I have your help!" ]  
[ "I feel okay." ]  
[ "I'm a little tired." ]  
[ "Nothing in particular." ]  
[ "Why do you ask?" ]

Onoda was sure those were not answers to the question Manami was trying to ask. The best he could do was ask a question back.

"Why do you ask?"

"I already tried to tell you how I feel about you. I've been trying to give you a chance to tell me how you feel about me. Please..." Manami's eyes flicked up again, wide and beseeching, as if searching Onoda's face. Manami's voice was strained as if he was struggling to hold it level when he said, "How do you feel about me?"

[ "I want to be with you forever." ]  
[ "I might like you." ]  
[ "Nothing in particular." ]  
[ "I don't like you." ]

Onoda found himself leaning towards the screen as he tried to decide. The first one seemed more emotional and accurate. He wanted to keep playing the game just to unlock more time with Manami. Then again, maybe the second was what he was supposed to say. Love confession. Final scene. Victory. Hopefully unlock a special sequence and a cute gallery.

While he was thinking the cursor gave a warning flash. Onoda panicked and selected his first choice, afraid the game would take the last option if he wasn't fast.

"I want to be with you forever."

"Oh. What would you do with me?"

Of the four options that came up, one was embarrassing, one borderline obscene, and one was the obligatory rejection option. Onoda felt his cheeks flame.

"Why couldn't you have an option like 'I want to go riding with you?'" He argued out loud. He had to pick by process of elimination, the only one that didn't make him want to hide his face.

"I'm happy just seeing you every day."

"You're kind to say something like that. But I'm sure you wouldn't be lonely if I'm not there, right?"

"Are you still mad at me for paying attention to everyone?" Onoda knew it was stupid to argue with the game, but his comments kept coming up as options and it had trained him into the habit. This option appeared on the list too.

He almost selected it, but then he looked at Manami's face and found his expression didn't fit. He didn't look angry or jealous. He looked more hopeful than anything.

Onoda took the plunge. Even if it meant the game would be over, he wanted to see Manami's happy ending.

"I want to be with you, because I love you."

Manami raised one hand like he was resting his fingers on the screen. It was a weird way to draw the frame, but Onoda supposed it did fit with his expression of longing.

"No. How can you? You don't know many good things about me, do you?"

Manami had steered him into the chance to confess and yet he was being turned down? That didn't feel right. Onoda picked the option again, even though there were other things he also wanted to say.

"I love you." ("I want to get to know you more.")

"If you mean we get along well together, I feel the same way."

"I love you." ("I want to be your friend.")

"I'm sure the person you truly love will be happy." Manami looked like he was swallowing back tears and it wasn't right. It wasn't _fair_.

"I love you!" Onoda shouted out loud at the screen.

He immediately felt stupid. Here he was declaring his love for a video game character. It was weird to want to make Manami happy, wasn't it? Manami wasn't real. Manami was carefully designed, scripted, and animated to make people enjoy falling in love with him, but that was all. Even if he had developed a crush on Manami, those feelings couldn't be returned.

Onoda knew all of that, so why did his heart ache with the desire to see Manami happy? Why was his heart pounding when the text box blinked out of existence?

Manami smiled at him. His hair ruffled as if in a breeze, and Onoda thought he felt a breath of fresh air on his own face as Manami spoke out loud.

"Thank you. For everything. I need to ask for one more favor. Will you take my hand?"

He reached for Onoda, so it looked like his palm was pressed flat against the television screen.

"Huh?" Onoda looked down at the controller and then up at the screen. There was no option to do what Manami had requested. He almost reached for the television, but he didn't have any motion-capture equipment, and if the game needed it this was a bad time to find out!

"Sakamichi-kun," Manami called. "Please."

Onoda froze, staring at the boy on the screen. After having his name neatly left off or replaced with pronouns during the spoken dialog like in any normal game, Manami had called his name. Not in the stilted way of a system that had syllables fed into it to produce a variety of words, but fluently in a human voice.

It wasn't possible.

"I need you."

"What do you want me to do?" Onoda tried hitting different buttons but nothing happened.

"Take my hand," Manami answered. He pointed with his other hand in case Onoda still didn't get it.

It was too surreal to believe. Onoda dropped the controller and crawled close enough to lay his hand over Manami's.

He didn't know what he expected to happen, but he didn't expect to feel Manami's palm press against his. Manami's fingers laced with his and all he could do was stare. Manami's hand was three-dimensional, solid and pushing out of the screen to grasp his. The background dissolved into static. There were sparks where his body passed through the glass.

"Finally. I can finally reach you."

With that breathy proclamation, Manami's other hand escaped the screen and grabbed his shoulder. Manami's nose bumped against his. Onoda found himself staring into wild eyes that he swore no animator could have rendered so beautifully.

Manami's weight pulled on him, and he realized Manami was using him as an anchor to drag himself up and out of the television screen. Onoda didn't really think. He leaned back and pulled, and Manami tumbled out of the screen on top of him, knocking him flat on the floor.

There was a flash and a crack. Onoda's room suddenly smelled like the aftermath of a lightning strike. Maybe lightning had somehow struck him and scrambled his brain, because Manami was on top of him. A character from his dating sim was kneeling on top of him and holding him to the floor.

Manami's expression was frightening. The lines in his face all said pain, but at the same time his eyes were lit up with a maniac's smile. His breath came short and fast.

"It hurts," Manami told him. "This is what being alive feels like, isn't it?"

"Are you hurt?" Onoda tried to sit up. No matter how disoriented he was he was still aware he didn't want Manami hurt!

Manami didn't answer. He dragged Onoda into his arms and tucked his cheek against Onoda's shoulder to say in his ear, "I love you."

"Wh-what are you-"

"I love you. I love you," Manami repeated, an insistent mantra in his ear. "I love you, Sakamichi-kun. I love you."

There was no way the voice proclaiming love to him over and over could be a recording. It was impossible, but Manami was solid on top of him. He could feel Manami's breath on his ear. He couldn't even try to pretend it wasn't real.

It was real, but Onoda still didn't understand what was happening. He couldn't stop his voice from rising with distress as he asked, "What are you doing?"

Manami went quiet for a second and then sighed. "I lost count."

"What?"

"If I said I loved you first it would have been game over. Do you know how many times I had to stop myself from saying it to you?"

"I don't know. Sorry."

Manami laughed. "I don't actually remember, but I wondered if I said it enough times would I feel satisfied. Maybe I should tell you a few more times, just in case."

Onoda looked away before he could say 'if you want to.' He wasn't sure how to feel about having Manami declaring love to him, but embarrassment was gaining traction now.

Once he looked away from Manami's face he suddenly saw why Manami had said, 'it hurts.' He had landed on Onoda's glass in his fall, and breaking it so that the shards had cut into his forearm. Bright splotches of blood stained his white shirt.

"You're hurt!" The struggle to process that Manami was real and on top of him and making declarations of love was easily shoved aside with the realization that Manami was injured. "Oh no. I should have realized. I'm so sorry! I can call a doctor. Or, I could..." Onoda didn't know what to do in a situation like this.

"I don't mind," Manami told him. "No, I'm glad it hurts. This way I know I'm finally alive! Do you understand what that means?" Manami paused. The wild smile slowly disappeared from his face, to be replaced by sulky disappointment. "I guess not. You made that face before, when my injury wasn't even real."

Onoda didn't doubt he was making an awful face. Someone he liked was hurt and he didn't know what to do!

"Do you want to look after me again?"

"Yes!" Onoda seized on that suggestion.

Manami stood and helped him to his feet. He led Manami to the bathroom and hurried to get out the first aid supplies. He had taken so many spills on his bike (at much higher speeds since joining the cycling club), they had started to accumulate.

"I don't like seeing you unhappy," Manami said, watching Onoda pick bits of glass out of his arm and set them aside.

"I don't like seeing you hurt," Onoda returned, although his feelings were already obvious.

He helped Manami get his shirt off. None of the cuts looked serious. Manami helped him one-handed as he put a little antiseptic ointment on them and used butterfly bandages to cover the longer wounds and hold them closed. He wound a bandage over the whole area to keep it clean.

When he finished he hesitated with one hand over Manami's arm, not sure if there was something else he should do. Manami took advantage of his indecision to clasp his hand.

Onoda looked at Manami's hand holding his, then up at Manami's face. He could feel the warmth of Manami's skin and the faint pressure of his grip.

Trying to look casual, Onoda pinched himself hard with his free hand. It hurt. Manami remained. If anything his smile was a touch more pleased.

Manami's fingers brushed his cheek, then moved back to pet his hair. He leaned forward until their foreheads touched. Did he want to kiss? Onoda didn't think he was ready for that. He was still grappling with having Manami here. The reality that Manami was shirtless and close and holding his hand was not helping him calm down.

"I should..." Onoda tried to assess the situation. Manami was a guest, but he never had friends over so he didn't have much experience with what you did to welcome guests. Offer them snacks, he guessed. Manami wasn't a normal guest anyway.

"Let me get you a fresh shirt. And some slippers. And, um... do you want anything?" Manami shook his head. "Okay. Stay here for a minute, okay?" He didn't want to explain to his mother why he had a friend over at dawn, let alone a shirtless and clingy one.

Manami didn't let go of Onoda easily but he didn't force him to stay, either. Onoda hurried back to his room to see if he could find something that would fit Manami first.

Onoda was halfway to his closet when he realized his phone was ringing. He hesitated. He rarely got phone calls, even now that his friends had his number. He kind of wanted someone to cry to because this didn't make any sense but it was still happening.

He got to his phone as it stopped ringing. There was silence for just long enough for him to open it and be informed he had four missed calls, then it started ringing again with the caller ID identifying Makishima.

Onoda glanced back down the hall–Manami was still in the bathroom and hopefully out of trouble–and picked up the call.

"Hello?" He answered politely, when he really wanted to beg his senpai for help because there was a cute video game character in his bathroom and he didn't know what to do now and he should probably be informing someone that he had seen anime like this and he wasn't the kind of person this happened to, but he absolutely did _not_ want Manami to go away!

"Onoda! Do you still have it?!" Makishima shouted.

"What?!" Onoda jumped and looked around wildly. Makishima sounded even more panicked than he felt, so of course some traitorous part of his brain decided it need to panic even more to catch up.

"The game with the Hakogaku cycling team! Do you have it?"

"Yes!"

"Do you know where it is _right now_? I need you to be sure!"

"Yes!" Onoda looked over and found credits were now rolling on the screen. There were no names he recognized. Most of them looked more like random characters jumbled together. He had no energy to be surprised by such a small thing anymore. "It's in my room. I was just playing." He had just finished. He had just won.

"Where are you? I'll be right there."

Onoda gave his address automatically. He heard a crash from the other end of the line and a few faint words that he could have sworn Makishima was too dignified to spit out like that before his upperclassman reassured him once again he would be right there.

"Manami's here!" Onoda blurted out. "I don't know how it happened! I don't know what to do!"

"You have one of them? You won?"

"Yes!" Onoda could have cried in relief. He didn't know how Makishima understood what he was talking about but he was so grateful.

"Don't let him touch the game!" Makishima ordered. "No, _neither_ of you touch the game if you can help it, but if you let him touch it I'll never forgive you!"

"Then what do I do?"

"Just stay there. I need to call Tadokorocchi and Kinjou. We'll be right there. Call the other first years too. We need to find enough people." Some of the panic in his voice had calmed, making it easier for Onoda to think. "I'm glad you have it. I should have guessed you could do it."

Makishima hung up, leaving Onoda with even more questions.

After another quick glance down the hall, he did as Makishima had asked and called Naruko and Imaizumi. He thought he would just leave a message, it was so early, but they both answered.

Naruko barely sounded awake when he answered. Onoda wasn't sure how much of the message got through, even though Naruko promised through a loud yawn that he would be right there. He decided he would phone back closer to their planned meeting time if Naruko fell back asleep and forgot.

Imaizumi was awake and serious from the moment Onoda said, 'I need your help.' He tried to backpedal and say it wasn't a crisis, at least he didn't think it was a crisis, he didn't know how to explain but he couldn't make it to their training trip today and he needed Imaizumi to come over if possible. Imaizumi had to remind him to slow down and give directions.

Hoping that Makishima would arrive first and bring some answers, Onoda returned to the bathroom to find Manami had sprayed himself in the face with the removable showerhead. His hair was soaked, and he had gotten his bandage wet. He was grinning.

"What are you doing?" Onoda protested. His alarm at Makishima's call was quickly being replaced by worry as he grabbed a clean towel. When he traded the towel for the showerhead he discovered the water was freezing cold.

"It's cold," was the only answer Manami gave him at first as he dried his face. Before Onoda could scold him he smiled to himself and elaborated, "That's right. I can tell you anything I want now. I haven't been able to feel anything for a long time. The whole time I was trapped in there I couldn't even feel hot or cold, or pain."

"Trapped? How long?"

"What day is it?" Manami asked.

"June 25th."

Manami silently studied Onoda's face, then asked more slowly, "What year is it?"

"2016."

Manami dropped the towel, then caught Onoda's hands and lifted them to cup his cheeks. "Less than a year, then. Your hands are warm."

"That's because your face is cold!" And his hair was still dripping, too. Onoda wanted to protest and he wanted to laugh all at once.

Manami leaned closer until their foreheads touched once again. Onoda wondered if Manami was drawn to the heat that seemed to be radiating from his face.

"We... I... Makishima-san phoned. He's my upperclassman in the cycling club. He said he's coming over soon, and maybe some of our other teammates."

"Makishima?" Manami murmured. He shook his head and laughed. "I look forward to meeting him!"

"He said you shouldn't touch the game, so..." What if the game sucked Manami back in? That was the last thing he wanted! Not that he had any evidence that would happen, but Onoda gripped Manami's arms to hold him to the real world.

"I know. I guess I have to ask you for another favor. I forgot I can't get everyone out if I can't touch the game."

"Everyone? Is everyone in that game like you?"

Manami nodded. "The rest of the team is still in there. Everyone except the captain. Someone set him free a long time ago."

"Then we have to do something! But he told me not to touch it, either. I don't know what to do! If everyone needs our help but we can't do anything..." Onoda wanted to curl up like a pillbug. He liked everyone on the team so much. He didn't want them trapped! At least he had somehow helped Manami, but he didn't know how to help the others.

"You said Makishima-san is coming. Isn't he your dependable upperclassman? He probably knows what to do."

"Right!" Onoda hadn't even known Makishima was into games, but he absolutely trusted him to somehow figure out what to do.

"So, if all we can do is wait, let's go outside."

"Huh?"

"Let's go outside, Sakamichi-kun." Manami tilted his head down enough for his wet bangs to hang in his eyes, making him look pitiful. "It's been a long time."

"Oh!" Onoda remembered Manami saying he hated to be cooped up inside, and if he'd been trapped for a long time, Onoda couldn't argue.

"I forgot to get you a shirt," Onoda realized. "I might have something that fits, I think."

Manami was patient as Onoda found a shirt that fit him reasonably well, and politely looked away to let Onoda get dressed. Onoda shoved his phone in his pocket and glanced at the T.V. again. The credits had finished. Looking at the screen, he resolved that he would never let Manami get anywhere near that game again.

Then Manami captured his hand and tugged at him like an eager puppy. He was the one to lead Onoda down the stairs, looking around hopefully for the door until Onoda pointed him in the right direction.

He had the door open before Onoda was done putting on his shoes and paused in the doorway, body turned toward the summer breeze and one hand braced on the doorframe as if to hold himself back.

"Come on, Sakamichi-kun," he called. He turned back towards Onoda, holding out his hand. With the house dark, the yellow of early morning sunlight made him glow. His smile was so wide it made Onoda's heart swell. It was funny to think Manami could conspire to look angelic in real life too.

Manami grabbed his hand just long enough to pull him out of the house. Then he broke into a run and his hand slipped out of Onoda's grip.

"Manami-kun, don't run into the street!"

There were no cars around now. The only thing in the street was a strong wind coming up the hill. Manami closed his eyes and raised his arms as if asking it to sweep him away.

Onoda stumbled to a stop at his side. It was still cool and quiet. There was no one except the two of them. Onoda turned his face into the wind as well, listening to Manami taking deep breaths. He reached up to take Manami's hand, to maybe lead him to enjoy the wind from the sidewalk.

Manami's hand grabbed his first and held it tight. Manami hurried forward, not quite breaking into a run this time, and pulled Onoda to follow.

"You never told me you live at the top of a hill! It looks steep!" He stood up on his toes to better see down the long, winding hill. There were more twists Onoda knew were hidden by trees and houses, and the base of the road couldn't be seen from where they stood, but Manami seemed happy with what he could see. "I want to climb it!"

Onoda laughed. He couldn't help it. He had seen that coming.

"I just realized you must climb this every day. I want to climb it with you."

That was completely the opposite of what people usually said about visiting him. It was just because Manami liked hills and didn't think they were a pain, but his heart was suddenly beating faster.

"You want to climb it every day?"

"Hm? No, not every day. There must be lots of hills and mountains that you like, right? It would be such a waste if we don't climb them all! Oh wait, since this is your hill, maybe it's okay if I take you home so we can climb it on the way."

Onoda couldn't seem to keep up with the excited racing of his own heart.

Manami grabbed his other hand so he was holding both of Onoda's tight in his. "We're going to ride together."

Onoda nodded.

"We're going to climb up every peak."

"Yes!"

Manami's smile was dazzling as he squeezed Onoda's hands, but a moment later he let out a long sigh. "I want to do it with you right now, but my bike is still in Hakone. How far is it? Toudou-san told me once, but I can't remember. I wonder if I can ride to meet you."

"That's, ah..." Onoda wouldn't say 'impossible,' but it wasn't very practical. "It's almost three hundred kilometers round trip. If you try to do that in a day, you won't have time to do anything else! You'd have to take the train, and even that takes a couple hours." Onoda had been looking it up last night. He had known he was being hopeless then, but now he was very glad he had.

"I didn't realize." Manami's gaze dropped. His smile faded into an unhappy pout. "I'm spoiled now. Every day since we met I've at least been able to see your face."

Onoda's face was getting painfully hot. "Me too. Me too, Manami-kun! I've been happy seeing you every day!"

Manami pulled him into a hug, squeezing a startled squeak out of him. There was a part of him that wanted to hug Manami back, but that lost to the part that needed to grab Manami's arms and pull him out of the street because one of the neighbors was on her way to work. Manami seemed completely unaffected by the look she gave them as she drove past.

Now that he was suddenly free, Manami was probably much too distracted by the wind and the sun and holding Onoda's hand to care what people thought.

Now that he was free... Onoda suddenly remembered, "You said you could say anything you want now."

"That's right! Did you want me to say it again? That I love you."

Onoda couldn't help his smile hearing it again. "I meant, before you would start talking about things like feeling trapped inside when you were a kid, or not liking video games, or why you loved riding. Were you trying to give me a clue?"

"Nope! I never even thought of that," Manami laughed. "I just told you the truth. But if I talked too much about things like that it could be game over. If I told you the what was happening it would be game over. If I asked you for help, or told you too much about how to win, or tried to cheat, it would be game over. We only learned the rules when we broke them. We've had a lot of 'game over's." Manami's hand tightened on his, squeezing it hard. "If that wall had slammed down and cut me off from you..."

Manami was holding his hand so hard it hurt, even though he was smiling at Onoda.

Onoda squeezed back as best he could. "But now there's nothing that will put a wall between us, right?"

"Right."

They were still holding hands when Imaizumi arrived. He was actually slightly winded, and not as neatly dressed as Onoda was used to seeing him. Yet when he stopped in front of Onoda, he seemed calm and dependable as ever.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm okay! We're still waiting for Makishima-san. I still don't understand everything, and I'm sorry to get you up so early, but I think we need your help. I'm really glad you're here."

Imaizumi's gaze went from him to Manami, to their joined hands, and back to Onoda's face again.

"Actually, I have good news too! This is Manami-kun. I told you about him, but um... I didn't know the whole story before today."

"You told people about me?"

"Just Imaizumi-kun and Naruko-kun! They're my best friends."

Imaizumi barely glanced at Manami, keeping his eyes on Onoda. "I thought you were playing a game."

"That was... I... ah..."

"He thought he was too." Manami gave Imaizumi a cheerful smile and a little wave, apparently unfazed by the mistake. "I'm Manami Sangaku. You must already know me as Sakamichi-kun's virtual boyfriend, but now that I'm finally here..." He trailed off, but gave Onoda's hand a meaningful squeeze. "Anyway, I'm pleased to meet you."

* * *

My original plan was to start posting on June 19th so the date in this chapter would match the IRL date. Obviously that didn't happen, but in the end I decided to keep the original date. I would like to write a sequel at some point and that fits the timeline I want to use.

There's still a lot of questions to be answered, but I think chapter 8 will help clear some of them up. I couldn't just leave the others in the lurch after all.


	8. Saturday, and finally Sunday again

First I want to say thank you so much to everyone who has been reading! (And to anyone who finds and reads this in the future!) I hope you have enjoyed the fic and I hope you will enjoy this last marathon chapter. I'm sorry it's late, but in the end I wanted to take a little extra time and be completely happy with a few last details before I shared with everyone.

Thanks again to Semi, my wonderful beta, who not only talked me down when I suggested cutting the entire rescue operation, but pointed out many plot holes and bits of information that I needed to clean up. She did a wonderful job on the entire fic but this chapter in particular is so much more tidy, coherent, and hopefully satisfying thanks to her.

I think this chapter will clear up some questions, though it might raise a few more. At some point I would like to write a sequel for the Hakogaku team, but for now I really hope you will enjoy this ending.

* * *

Makishima and Naruko arrived at about the same time, the latter having just lost an impromptu race up the hill.

"Makishima-san!" Manami greeted. "I'm glad I finally get to meet you in person."

Onoda looked between them, confused. Makishima had a wry smile tugging the corner of his mouth out of shape. "Same here."

"Manami-kun, have you already met?"

"Wait, isn't Manami the guy you've been talking about all week?" Naruko wanted to know.

"Yes. Uh, this is Manami Sangaku, from the Hakogaku racing team. Manami-kun, this is Naruko Soukichi, my friend from cycling club."

"You're not telling me this guy just walked out of your game and into real life!"

"No, I had lots of help from Sakamichi-kun to do that," Manami answered, which didn't really help clear things up.

"I know it seems weird-" Onoda started, but he was interrupted when Makishima smacked one hand down on top of his head and the other on Naruko's

"There's plenty of time to explain once we get that game taken care of."

Onoda felt the same urgency driving his upperclassman. He led everyone inside and up to his room. He hadn't touched the game since Makishima's call. Once the credits had finished it had switched to a victory screen which simply said: _You won Manami Sangaku's heart! Enjoy your prize!_ A chibi version of Manami stood below the words, smiling and waving cutely.

Digital Manami did not seem to be bothered by the fact that he had been left alone for several minutes. Real-world Manami was probably as unsettled by the message as Onoda, considering how he was going along with Onoda's plan to keep himself between Manami and the game console at all times.

"Why does that look just like him!?" Naruko demanded.

"I said we'd explain later. One of you hurry up and start a new game! Why did you think we called you over here?"

"Why don't you do it?"

"Because I already played once!"

Instead of joining the argument, Imaizumi knelt in front of the game console and hit the reset button.

When Manami came up during the opening animation, both Naruko and Imaizumi turned to stare at him again. He didn't seem to notice. Onoda wondered how he felt seeing the game from the outside.

Imaizumi entered his information, up until the 'What scares you' question.

"Say heights!" Manami butted in. "That one starts you with a penalty with me, but you can't win me now anyway."

For 'What is important?' the response 'Feeling free' was crossed out.

"Whatever you pick decides who lives in the dorms with you, so they're easier to spend time with. Just don't pick 'Being the strongest.' That's the captain's."

Imaizumi went with 'Silencing critics.' He chose 'boyfriend' when Manami didn't offer further advice, and the first day started.

Manami gave him directions to get to the school without getting lost. In the game, Manami barely greeted him. His cut scene didn't trigger. He was a pale shadow of what Onoda remembered.

Every so often Naruko would point out something in the game and ask if that was normal. Like when they made it to lunch and Arakita's cut scene was triggered. Having a special introductory moment wasn't strange at all. The fact that Imaizumi choosing one different dialog option apparently led to an entirely different conversation really wasn't.

Manami gave his teammates a small wave.

"Can they see us?"

"Of course. We could always see you," Manami said brightly.

Onoda raised a hand to wave as well, trying not to look too uncertain. Did that mean Manami had seen him every time he blushed or got flustered about something? Had he known every time Onoda had put his hands over his face rather than watch a particularly embarrassing scene?

Naruko leaned an arm on Imaizumi's shoulder to better get right in the line of sight from the TV before informing Arakita and Shinkai that they had everything under control.

When Imaizumi ran into Toudou he didn't get the same smoothly polished response Onoda remembered. Toudou lit up with excitement and insisted that Imaizumi was perfect, immediately offering him the position of manager. Maybe Onoda was hyper-aware of what Manami had said, but it really felt like Toudou was beaming not just at Imaizumi, but at the rest of them sitting behind him.

While Imaizumi was getting the tour, Manami touched Onoda's shoulder and asked, "Can I borrow your phone?"

Onoda passed it to him. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but he didn't move away from Manami, either.

"Iinchou, this is Sangaku. I'm back. I'm in Chiba right now, with the person who saved me. We're going to try to get the others. Um..." Manami turned his head away from everyone and continued awkwardly, "I'm sorry for being gone so long. I promise I'll see you soon."

Onoda remembered the serious girl who had been their class rep in the game, who was usually the catalyst for Manami's mini game. Manami had called her his childhood friend, which Onoda now realized meant she had to be based on a real person.

Manami passed his phone back after leaving the message.

"You can phone anyone else you need," Onoda offered quicky.

"I will later. I really wanted to let her know her first. She was one of the first few who ended up with the game, but I crashed it in five minutes by telling her what was going on," he explained, giving Onoda a sheepish smile.

Onoda thought he should say something, but he wasn't sure what. He tried to reassure Manami by saying, "I'm sure she'll call back later. It's pretty early."

Onoda was still a little surprised he'd gotten a hold of both of his friends at five in the morning. Once he was thinking about it, he had no idea how Makishima had known he had the game. He had played the game before and obviously knew how important it was, but how did he know to call at a time like that?

"Makishima-san how did you know I had the game?" If Makishima had overheard him talking about it with his friends surely he would have said something right away.

"One of Toudou's messages finally came though. They've always been too late for me to find the game up until now, but this time I didn't have to go far to find you."

Onoda remembered Toudou texting someone every single day after practice. He had sensed that it was someone important. "But how? Just because you played the game before?"

Manami laughed. "Toudou-san already had a habit of texting his boyfriend every day after practice. Arakita-san and I forgot our phones a lot, and Izumida-san didn't use his in the club room. Shinkai-san tries to get the captain sometimes."

"Don't say I'm his boyfriend! Toudou just pestered me all the time because he considers us rivals. I'm surprised he didn't get himself out long before now. I thought he was supposed to be charming."

"He's still charming. He just messes up when he thinks of you."

Onoda felt his face heat and tried to hide it by hanging his head and staring at the floor. Toudou must have been, and still was, very close to Makishima. And Onoda had considered playing his route. He really was in a relationship and Onoda had flirted with him!

"Why are you both blushing?" Manami laughed.

Makishima had one hand over his face to hide it, which wasn't very effective.

"Okay, what is that about?" Naruko suddenly asked, pointing at the screen.

Imaizumi had been distracted by their conversation and gotten the message that he needed to play the game in real time.

The game had helpfully selected for him to tell Toudou it was none of his business why he couldn't ride anymore. Toudou was clearly too happy to be offended by something like that.

Onoda wanted to ask if they had been fishing for information about him to give Makishima, but Manami scooted closer and leaned against him, arm slipping around his waist, and all of the questions Onoda wanted to ask promptly fell out of his brain.

Imaizumi finished the day and returned to the main screen. "That's what you needed, right? Now you can explain everything."

Makishima had been slowly relaxing, but he immediately tensed again. "I was going to let Kinjou explain. Fukutomi would be even better, when he gets here."

Manami took it on himself to explain instead. "It's pretty simple. Somehow our team was trapped inside a romance game that somehow goes from person to person and we can't leave until someone somehow wins and helps us out."

"That's too many somehows! How does something like that even happen in this world?"

Manami shifted and wrapped both arms around Onoda's waist, hugging him close. "I don't remember. None of us remember much about the first play through, either."

Onoda suddenly felt like everyone was staring at him, though it was probably just Manami cuddling him.

Makishima leaned one arm on his knee, kinking his spine in an uncomfortable-looking pose. "You're missing the important part. Who cares how they got into this mess? What we're going to do is get them out. Kinjou won last summer, and it took this long for the game to end up with someone else who could win." Makishima lifted his hand, wearing the grin that always made Onoda feel inspired. "Now we finally have the game and we know how to get through it. We're going to make sure we win."

* * *

They changed venues before going further. Makishima offered his house as he had it to himself, there was more space, and he had a larger television to hook Onoda's console up to. Onoda had been a little worried about fitting Shinkai especially through the narrow screen in his room.

After stumbling through some awkward introductions with Onoda's mother (who was excited to meet who she assumed were his friends in the anime club and tried to make them stay for breakfast), and offering that Manami borrow his road racer since he could take his old mama bike (Manami immediately decided to pull him), the trip was easy. Set-up was easy. Onoda settled down on the floor beside Imaizumi with his notes, making sure his friend had the best strategy guide possible.

Reinforcements arrived to boost their numbers. Kinjou explained that based on previous experience each player only got one attempt, but Tadokoro was ready and interested to try, and he brought Teshima and Aoyagi with him. The other club members were busy or unreachable, but Imaizumi suggested the obvious option of calling Miki over. They were playing as a manager, after all.

Manami offered comments and bits of information as they went. Imaizumi's answer had given him a bonus with Arakita. The only advice Onoda could give, to be honest with him or he would get mad, turned out to be all Imaizumi needed.

Onoda caught himself thinking, maybe it really could be this easy.

And then, three hours after Manami had fallen out of the game on top of him and about the time Imaizumi got his first date offer from Arakita, the Hakogaku captain arrived.

He was almost as taciturn as he'd been in the game, but his presence alone was powerful enough to command attention.

Manami immediately jumped up and greeted his captain. Onoda heard him say, "I knew you were coming to get us, but I met Sakamichi-kun and I couldn't wait anymore," then laugh and promise that everyone was still fighting hard.

Fukutomi checked Manami over, made absolutely sure that he was whole and well, and then put a phone in his hand and ordered him to call his parents.

"Makishima-san sent us a message saying they didn't remember."

"They realize you're missing every few days. Then they forget. Call them before they become frantic again."

Manami looked like someone had punched him in the gut. Before Onoda could move he was out of the room and a moment later the front door slammed.

Then it was Onoda's turn to stand and meet Hakogaku's captain for real. He couldn't interpret expressions on that stoic face, but the hand that came to rest on his shoulder when Fukutomi thanked him was heavy. It felt like the weight of receiving a word of praise from Kinjou, but to such a degree Onoda thought his knees might give out.

Kinjou rested a hand on his other shoulder from behind.

"The sixth man on your team?"

"That's right," Kinjou answered, as if the whole gathering was about cycling.

Fukutomi squeezed Onoda's shoulder hard, though not hard enough to be painful. "Know you have my gratitude, for the rest of my life."

Onoda felt he understood. This wasn't at all the character in the game who was so distant and only seemed to care about the odd win. The real Fukutomi loved his team and wanted them back.

"I still want to help in any way I can! I won't quit as long as there's anything I can do to help everyone come home!"

There was a faint smile on Fukutomi's face. Onoda couldn't really say how he saw it, but it was a change. Fukutomi didn't seem so overwhelming anymore.

He was still intense. He deliberately waited until Imaizumi was in a conversation with Toudou to drop a bombshell. "There is one thing I will add to our plan of attack: Toudou has to come last."

"What?" Makishima's outburst drew everyone's attention. Onoda thought even Toudou was looking at him. "He's the one who's been trying to lead us to the game all this time!"

"That's exactly why. Toudou is the only one with the ability to communicate with us outside. If we do lose the game again, we need him there. Understand, Toudou?" Fukutomi said, and suddenly Onoda understood why he had waited until Toudou could witness his ultimatum.

"I'm always glad for your support," Toudou was saying, still reacting to Imaizumi after a triumphant race.

"Ask if he has any suggestions," Onoda offered. Now that he knew just how weird the game was he completely believed it had taken what he said and turned it into dialog options.

Imaizumi glanced back, but ran fingers through his short hair and humored Onoda, "Can you give us any suggestions?"

Saying it worked this time around. Fukutomi glanced back at him. Imaizumi made the selection.

[ "Do you have any suggestions?" ]

With this question, Onoda hoped Toudou would be able to answer Fukutomi. "I trust you. I'm ready to accept the decisions you make. My job is to handle whatever assignment you give me!"

With his winning smile, Toudou at least looked confident.

When Manami came back he tucked himself against Onoda's side and held on to him. After several minutes of watching Imaizumi and Arakita's increasingly cheerful arguments he said, "My parents want to meet you."

"I'd love to meet them," Onoda answered, although he wondered what Manami had told them about him.

"One of Makishima-san's messages said people who haven't played the game don't realize we're missing, and nothing Fukutomi-san did could make anyone remember." Manami leaned his forehead on Onoda's shoulder. His voice was faint as he continued, "They yelled at me for coming all the way to Chiba without saying anything. Like I've only been gone for one night."

Onoda had no idea what to do. He put his hand on Manami's shoulder, then slowly moved it around Manami's back until he was giving him a gentle hug.

Manami didn't say anything else until Fukutomi moved from where he was watching Imaizumi play to inform him that he had fought hard and now he needed to stay strong to support his teammates. It seemed to help.

Near the end of Imaizumi's run, one of Toudou's texts actually got through. The ringer on Makishima's phone went off at full volume and he grabbed for it.

"Don't add unnecessary things!" he shouted at Toudou, not letting anyone else see the phone. Frowning as if daring them to ask, he delivered the part of the message that didn't fall under 'unnecessary things.' "He says to get Izumida first."

"Next run," Fukutomi agreed.

They were so close. None of them had anything to add now. They could only watch Imaizumi and Arakita work together to nudge the game into giving them the choices they needed to reach the ending.

"Give me your hand. You'd better be ready to challenge me for real, now," Arakita said out loud once the message box was gone. He was grinning as he put his hand to the screen.

"Same to you." Imaizumi put his hand over Arakita's.

Nothing happened. Both of them started at their hands for a moment, but they didn't connect.

Arakita swore and brought down both fists against the glass, producing a resonating thump, but not getting him any closer to Imaizumi.

"Onoda, what do I do?"

"I just touched Manami-kun's hand! I didn't do anything special."

"Boyfriend mode," Arakita snarled, making it sound like a curse. "I forgot we were supposed to be playing for that." He was leaning one forearm against the screen, his forehead against his arm. "Heh. And I actually thought we'd make it. I could've-"

The screen went black, leaving nothing but stark white, block letters:

 **GAME OVER**

Imaizumi slowly sat back. Manami's hand, which had been laying against Onoda's, suddenly squeezed it tight.

"What the hell!" Naruko burst out. "I thought he was winning!"

The room shattered into sharp fragments of silence and noise: Naruko's offense, Imaizumi's shock, Teshima trying to analyze at what point the route had gone bad. The crystallized silence around Makishima seemed too sharp at the edges to approach.

"We have enough people to try again. As long as someone starts a new game soon we keep the disc," Kinjou told them. For a moment even he couldn't smooth the atmosphere and unite them completely.

"Imaizumi-kun, you-" Onoda knew that 'you were really close' wasn't enough. He had lost, and the gulf between winning and losing was too wide.

"There's no strategy guide for this game. We learned every single trap by falling for it." Manami's hand was gripping Onoda's hard enough to make it clear he didn't like this any more than the rest of them did, but he sounded so calm. "It's too bad you can't play again now that you know how."

Imaizumi was listening but not responding. Onoda jumped in. "That's right. Now the next person will get even farther because of what you did. We're all working as a team!"

Onoda had honestly been thinking of it that way the whole time. It would take their whole team to save Manami's whole team, but it didn't look like that had occurred to Imaizumi yet.

Imaizumi lifted his head a little and while he didn't say anything, he allowed Kinjou to lay a hand on his shoulder and repeat Onoda's promise, that because of his help the next person would reach the goal. The second time Onoda hoped the words really did sink in.

* * *

"We need a plan of attack before starting the next run."

"Toudou said to get Izumida. Do we need someone compatible?"

"He said 'boyfriend mode.' Does that mean there's other ways to play?" Teshima interjected.

"That's something you choose at the beginning. I didn't realize it was important."

"Playing to become his rival may actually be more effective," Kinjou said. Onoda wondered if that was how he had won.

"No. Izumida would have too much trouble accepting someone as a rival without the opportunity to see them in action."

"There's friend," Onoda suggested. 'Boyfriend' or 'rival' were fairly specific, but there were many ways to make the emotional connections that would lead you to call someone 'friend.'

"Then let's send somebody in the same year," Tadokoro decided, looking to Teshima and Aoyagi. They looked at each other.

"Aoyagi is good at video games."

Aoyagi didn't say anything about the nomination, but he made a low noise and his chin dipped slightly.

"It might help," Teshima answered. "I just have a feeling the two of you will get along."

Aoyagi considered this before nodding seriously. "What else do you want me to know about him?"

"I know his answer to 'What is important?' is 'Improving yourself.' That's what I picked." Onoda actually wasn't aware of having done anything specific to earn Izumida's attention besides that. When trapped by Aoyagi's waiting gaze he added that Izumida seemed to like consistency and a stable routine. This was met with nods of agreement from Izumida's teammates.

Armed with the answers to the first four questions, Aoyagi took his place in front of the console. Teshima settled on one side and Onoda on the other with his notes. Miki sat next to Onoda to watch the beginning of the game, while Kinjou and Fukutomi stood expectantly behind them with their arms crossed. Onoda wondered if Aoyagi felt supported by the team gathered around him as he set out to rescue Izumida from his virtual prison.

Just from Aoyagi's posture Onoda knew the serious stare Izumida must be getting every time he looked up. Onoda thought he would have been nervous, but Izumida seemed to accept it. Perhaps getting that look from someone determined to save you was more heartening than unnerving.

Fukutomi made some minuscule adjustments to Onoda's training notes, to better match Izumida's real-world schedule. Aoyagi made progress rapidly in terms of boosting Izumida's stats, mastering his mini game, and unlocking a handful of scenes around the dorm that Onoda hadn't seen.

Aoyagi also uncovered an unexpected flower before Izumida's first race: Bluebells, for gratitude.

Their first 'date' was a visit to a botanical garden with backgrounds rendered in beautiful yet out-of-place watercolors. Aoyagi and Izumida seemed to get along with some quiet understanding the dialog options didn't cover, while Teshima poked his friend in the side and made teasing comments about how compatible they were.

Once Aoyagi had successfully completed their first outing, Tadokoro pointed out that important as their mission was, everyone needed lunch to keep their strength up. Onoda didn't realize until then that while most of the others had found breakfast he hadn't eaten since the crack of dawn.

It was a little difficult to eat with Manami holding his hand (since it was his right hand firmly clasped in Manami's left.) Manami quickly noticed and decided that instead of letting go of his hand for a few minutes the best choice was to feed him.

"Here, Sakamichi-kun. Say 'ah,'" he instructed cheerfully.

"Not in front of everyone. Please?" Maybe not even in front of Manami. Onoda liked fun little romantic things like that, but he still felt shy about them.

Manami looked over at where Teshima was attempting to feed Aoyagi, in spite of everyone watching him play. On the other hand Aoyagi did elbow him for being a distraction

Knowing someone else was the center of attention didn't help Onoda's blush.

"Cute," Manami said into his ear.

"What?"

"You are."

"You too!" Onoda said quickly.

Manami's answer was to laugh and shake his head, in spite of the fact that Onoda was _right_ because Manami was many times cuter than he was.

Onoda decided to stick with rice balls for lunch, since he could eat those left-handed.

With Aoyagi and Izumida they confirmed that the player had to say something out loud to get over the final hurdle, but they did manage to cross it. Aoyagi and Izumida regarded each other once the text box was no longer between them. As if on a silent cue, they both shot a hand forward at the same time. The sound of their palms slapping together rang through the room like a victory shout.

Aoyagi actually pushed his hand in through the screen to grab Izumida's wrist for better purchase. Izumida mirrored the grip.

Teshima wrapped both arms around Aoyagi's waist to anchor him and they pulled together. There was a blinding flash from the screen when Izumida fell free, and the three of them landed in a heap on the floor.

When they dragged themselves up Teshima was laughing. Izumida's jaw was set and his eyes squeezed closed like he was trying not to cry. Aoyagi gripped each of their shoulders, and in the commotion Onoda caught a flash of a rare smile.

* * *

"Do we aim for Shinkai or Arakita?"

"Wait!" Izumida turned from where he had been reporting to Fukutomi, braced himself seriously, and announced, "Shinkai is aromantic and asexual. You won't be able to help him if you choose 'boyfriend' or 'lover,'"

"Izumida."

Izumida stood solid before the reprimand from his captain. "He told me to out him if I made it. We've had too many game overs."

Tadokoro clapped Izumida on the back on his way to take his place in front of the television. He reset the game without waiting for the others to debate. "Don't worry. It's my turn now, and I'm not planning on using a setting like that. I'm interested in getting to know this guy in real life."

"You..." Izumida was momentarily struck dumb. He had to take a deep breath and compose himself before bowing deeply. "Thank you!"

"Thank me after I win," Tadokoro laughed.

"Don't play as a third year!" All three Hakogaku members plus Makishima shouted in unison as he went to fill out his information.

"The game changes if it decides you're over eighteen," Fukutomi explained. His voice was like iron when he ordered, "Don't list yourself as a third year."

Tadokoro looked back at Makishima. "How do you know? You weren't a third year when you played this thing."

Makishima refused to respond to that.

"Okay, what's his answer?" Tadokoro asked.

"It should be 'Taking responsibility.' Look, the answers are in order by bib number," Miki pointed out.

"Heh, really? Is that just his story line?"

"Shinkai-san is extremely responsible," Izumida answered in defense of his mentor. "That's not a bad thing."

When Shinkai met Tadokoro he smiled and said, "Tadokoro, huh? I'm looking forward to working with you."

Tadokoro abused the ability to add his own lines at every opportunity, to the point where he grumbled at having to choose between options provided by the game. There wasn't much advice Onoda could offer. Tadokoro obviously didn't need it. He was intent on plowing ahead into his own storyline.

They dismantled the idea of shame at having someone Shinkai cared for see his demon side. He was strong for his self-awareness, and for rebuilding himself. Watching, Onoda couldn't help realizing how awkward it had felt when Shinkai offered him a date. Tadokoro and Shinkai were halfway through their second outing before either of them seemed to realize this was supposed to be the equivalent of a date.

Izumida alternated between watching Shinkai's scenes and getting settled. He spent a good chunk of time talking with Fukutomi and borrowed his phone, ate lunch with Aoyagi, and finally came to see Manami.

Onoda tried to not listen as they spoke a little too carefully about going back to Hakone, as if they were trying to make sure they didn't jinx their upperclassmen making it home too.

"Onoda-kun," Izumida said, startling him. "I want to apologize. I thought you were being completely aimless, but you kept the game going until you could rescue Manami."

"It's nothing. I didn't know what I was doing most of the time."

"That doesn't matter. You won."

Instead of thinking of victory, the thing that slipped into Onoda's mind was Manami saying, 'We've had a lot of game overs.' Even if he hadn't been perfect, they had made it in the end.

"I'm glad I could help. I'm glad we were able to hang on to the game so everyone can help!"

Izumida seemed satisfied with that declaration.

For the last part of the run, Izumida stayed close to Tadokoro. He was completely tense. Onoda didn't think he would be able to take a deep breath until Shinkai was free.

Shinkai's final scene arrived so quickly they didn't see it coming. Toudou and Arakita were teasing him about spending all of his time with his 'new best friend.' Even though it was a game-generated option, Tadokoro jumped at the chance to agree that was exactly what they were.

Onoda wondered if it had been planned when he caught the smug look on Toudou's face. The next moment Shinkai was left alone on the screen, with no teammates and no message box.

Tadokoro pulled Shinkai free easily. They thumped each other on the back so hard Onoda could feel it just watching them. Then Shinkai pounced on his captain with a joyful, "Juichi!"

When Onoda's gaze slipped away from the newest round of reunion celebrations it fell on Imaizumi. He was tense and silent as he stared at the nonsense credits. Onoda sensed almost more than saw the faint tremors in his muscles, as if he might start shaking.

Onoda reached for Imaizumi's shoulder but thought it would startle him too much to touch him now.

Arakita was their next target.

"Imaizumi-kun, will you help me on the next run?" It wasn't just kindness. Imaizumi had been so close. If only they could play the exact same run on a non-romantic setting, Onoda knew they would win.

Imaizumi came out of whatever thoughts had been gripping him. He looked at Onoda for what felt like the first time since he had started playing the game, and Onoda smiled hopefully.

"Yeah." Once he was committed to it, Imaizumi lifted his head and Onoda recognized the return of his usual pride. "I do want to meet him in real life."

* * *

They used their ace for the next run.

Miki was a natural. She unlocked everything in record time. She even had Arakita grumbling, "Do you expect me to stay here all day?" as he stuck to the training she assigned. Toudou commented many times on her skill at handling Arakita, which was met with irritation, but sparked fewer arguments than Onoda had seen in past runs.

Onoda had noticed the change without Manami and Izumida there, but with Shinkai gone there was a stark absence of little scenes and team conversations. The missing characters' responses were few and flat, their dialog trees hacked down to a bare minimum of branches, their cut scenes were absent, and even the back-and-forth scenes Onoda had seen before were not preserved.

Watching, Onoda was very aware that Toudou and Arakita were alone. They made as much noise as they could between them, but it wasn't the same.

Shinkai talked to them from the outside, mostly reminding them to play nice with each other. Onoda wasn't sure if he actually expected them to not fight or if it was just something to say to bridge the gap.

When Shinkai gave Manami a hard time about not having left Onoda's side all day, Onoda took the chance to talk to him.

"Shinkai-san? I'm sorry for pushing you into asking me out before. It just seemed like you were really upset. I should've known what would happen." Now he had a better idea of why Shinkai had looked so tired when he politely delivered his date offer. From what Onoda understood, Shinkai didn't want any kind of romantic relationship at all.

(He also wanted to apologize to Izumida, who had been so painfully embarrassed, but bringing that up in front of a dozen people would embarrass him all over again.)

"You didn't want a date with me any more than I wanted one with you, right? Anyway, as long as only one of us could date you, Sangaku would have fought me for it."

Onoda surprised himself by laughing, even though he already had a good idea Manami felt that way. It was a little embarrassing to think of how obvious his feelings for Manami had been, but it might have been worse if someone misunderstood.

"I kept thinking if it was real life it would be fine that I was spending time with other people and there wouldn't be any confusion. It was kind of frustrating, because I wanted to get to know everyone. You're all really nice."

For a moment Shinkai's smile was calm and satisfied the way it had been when Onoda turned him down. Then he laughed and thumped Onoda's back. Not as hard as Tadokoro would have done, but enough to get the feeling across. "At least you didn't leave us to get bored! Are you two going to come help us pick out dinner? After all that time with food that has no taste we're getting some of everything."

Before Onoda knew how to respond Shinkai had reached over to ruffle Manami's hair so hard he had to duck his head.

Onoda shook his head. "You should go."

Manami didn't need much encouragement to go join Shinkai and Izumida in flipping through takeout menus. Onoda watched Fukutomi writing down their requests. The team was sticking close together.

Four down, two to go, Onoda thought to himself.

Miki was well on her way to making it five down, he hoped. The story she was playing out with Arakita only followed the most basic framework as the one Imaizumi had played through, but they all trusted her to make it work.

Imaizumi had given her all the information he had, and then had the grace to step aside. Onoda was still worried about him. He had really been shaken up, and even Naruko poking at him had only made him more despondent.

"Imaizumi-kun?" Onoda called his friend softly, waiting for Imaizumi to acknowledge him before he sat down. 'Are you okay?' was obviously starting to wear on him, so instead he ended up saying, "I'm sorry we didn't get to train today the way we planned. I hope we can go together another time."

Everyone was missing out on their regular training today. Makishima had two sets of rollers that were seeing a lot of use, but everyone kept coming back to check on the game. Even Tadokoro who had done his part and then went out to ride was back again.

Maybe it was a bad idea to remind Imaizumi of that.

"I would like that."

Onoda's heart jumped happily, because Imaizumi had perked up enough to give him a small smile.

"I promised I wouldn't neglect my training," Onoda quickly added. Maybe this was one of the worries Imaizumi was dealing with. Or perhaps the fact that Manami was from a rival team. Of course, Manami was so set on riding together, he would surely want Onoda to give his all as well!

"I know," Imaizumi said. He lay a hand on Onoda's shoulder and added softly, "You always put your whole heart into things."

"You too. I'm glad you're with me." Onoda felt so much pride to be working together with his team. He already knew they were all steadfast and kind, of course. (Or as he had overheard Fukutomi say to Kinjou, "Stubborn to the last. Just like you.")

Imaizumi nodded and took his hand away. He moved to stand up, but Naruko pounced on both of them before he got anywhere.

"You two think you can get away with leaving me out?"

Onoda laughed and protested that they weren't trying to. Imaizumi shrugged Naruko's arm off, but he stayed.

Manami joined them shortly before the food arrived. He hadn't forgotten Onoda saying Naruko and Imaizumi were his best friends as well as his teammates, although the first thing he wanted to know was if either of them were climbers.

The four of them ate dinner together and talked about cycling, which was an everyday enough topic to feel safe. It was a small thing, but it made Onoda feel better. Even if he did feel that he was lifting his head every thirty seconds to check on how Miki and Arakita were doing.

Arakita's idea of 'dates' were simple, everyday things. He bought Miki the odd bottle of Bepsi, or bread from the lunch counter. He walked her back to the dorm each evening, usually grumbling about how long she took with her duties as manager, even though she was the fastest and most efficient out of all of them.

Toudou seemed offended by the ordinariness of those special interactions and attempted to give Arakita advice, which led to several fights. At least this made Miki laugh and lightened the tension that kept threatening to set in.

Arakita was injured shortly before the first team race. Onoda wondered if that had ever happened to him before. He didn't take it well.

Miki, on the other hand, neatly twisted the situation into the conversation she wanted. He was going to recover. She would not allow any other outcome.

"We'll work together. That's what partners do."

"Heh. I wondered how you were going to make that work. Fine, then. As a manager, I couldn't ask for a better partner."

The message box disappeared. Arakita looked into his partner's face, holding himself tense for just a second, before relaxing and pressing his hands against the screen with a smirk.

"You know, I really like stubborn girls like you." It actually sounded like he meant it.

Miki laughed and grabbed his hand in both of hers to pull him through the screen. Halfway out, he reached up to brace himself on the TV frame and haul himself the rest of the way. He was still holding her hand when he made it to solid ground.

"Hey, Kanzaki-chan, thanks." Arakita looked away from her and scowled at the rest of the room. "Now someone get Toudou out of there before he drives himself crazy!"

"Leave it to me!" Before Teshima could make a move towards the console, Naruko had plopped himself down in front of it. "The Speed Man of Naniwa is going to beat this game in record time!"

No one argued with this. They went through the few known answers together. Toudou found 'being noticed' important ("We have something in common already!"), and Manami convinced them that Toudou would respond well to being asked to be a mentor.

As the game started and Naruko went through introductions, Onoda couldn't help worrying about the flat reflections of the people gathered around him. Toudou seemed to be trying to make up for the rest of them by being energetic and friendly. He even visited Naruko in his room the first night to see how he was settling in.

Onoda completely understood Arakita saying they needed to get Toudou out before he drove himself crazy. He was in there all alone. At least Naruko was spending as much time with him as the game would allow.

Arakita came to sit beside Onoda. Onoda thought for a moment he wanted to say hello to Manami. He'd been re-connecting with his other teammates, talking privately to Fukutomi, giving Izumida rough reassurances, and letting Shinkai find him food out of the remains of the take-out they had ordered for dinner.

"Hey, Onoda-chan," Arakita started, making him jump. "It's a good thing you picked Wonder Boy after all."

Manami's hug tightened and he rested his chin on Onoda's shoulder. Even though he was smiling at his upperclassman it didn't feel like he would be letting go any time soon. "I told you I wouldn't give up on him."

"Because Manami's route was so hard? It's okay. I know I wasn't doing well at first, so. . ."

"Hard? It's broken! He managed to make a mess of it with dead ends and trick questions where you can't win."

"But Sakamichi-kun never gave up on me, no matter how many points he lost. He kept going until we made it past all of that and I could help him."

Onoda looked back to catch a sunny smile on Manami's face. It looked like it was safe to talk about.

"How could your route be broken? Did something happen?"

"I broke it. I didn't cooperate the first time. I didn't know some of my choices would be locked in."

"Locked in?" Onoda thought of how some of the same responses still appeared even for people who were safely out of the game.

"Like I could never accept your special bento, and any training mistake would be amplified more than with anyone else. You lost so many points, Arakita-san was worried you would never be able to win with me."

"I was _not_ worried. You were just taking too long."

"Sorry for taking so long!" Onoda said quickly.

Manami laughed and squeezed him a little closer. "It did get better near the end. You were the first person I was able to ask on a date. You helped me experience new things. Of course, finally being here with you is much better!"

That shouldn't have been embarrassing, but it still was.

Onoda was grateful Arakita didn't see fit to comment. He left Onoda blushing, but feeling more grateful than ever to be cuddled in Manami's arms.

* * *

Late as it was, one of the options got an enthusiastic reaction.

[ "Who are you texting all the time?" ]

"Ask him!" Tadokoro shouted.

"Tadokorocchi!" Makishima shot straight up from where he had been leaning against his friend. "Don't waste time asking him when we already know."

The commotion got everyone's attention. Onoda could feel the others coming awake around him.

"No, you want to ask him," Arakita drawled. "The answer's good."

"You shut up!"

"It's a good idea to ask," Shinkai added.

Manami piped up as well. "You'll want to know what he says."

"Sorry, you're out-voted!" Naruko called as he gleefully selected the option. Onoda could guess he was as curious as the rest of them. Even Makishima moved to kneel behind him with little more than a complaining 'tsk.'

"Who are you texting all the time?"

"Oh, you noticed?" Toudou flashed a bright smile. "It's my precious rival. He's gone very far away. I can't talk to him anymore, but I like to imagine sometimes I get through, somehow." He held up his phone and looked at it, his smile wistful now. "I seem to think of something I'd like to say to him every day. Although there are many things I don't think I can say yet, things I'd like to say if we could somehow meet again."

"Stop making it sound like I'm dead!" Makishima shouted over Naruko's shoulder.

[ "What kinds of things?" ]

[ "That sounds sad." ]

[ "That sounds foolish." ]

"Sorry, I gotta do it!" Naruko said, and selected too quickly for anyone to give input.

"What kinds of things?"

"That I want to race him again. That I think he's amazing... and how much I miss him. Well, I wouldn't actually say that because it wouldn't be true anymore." Toudou put his phone away. "What about you, Manager? Do you think it's important to speak your feelings to the people near you?"

[ "Yes." ]

[ "Sometimes." ]

[ "Not really." ]

"Yes!" Every member of the Hakogaku team shouted in unison.

"Okay, okay."

"Yes."

"Yes, it's better not to have any regrets. Is there someone you'd like to speak to?"

[ "Yes, standing right in front of me." ]

[ "Yes, someone on the team." ]

[ "Yes, someone far away." ]

[ "No." ]

Naruko did not need coaching on that selection.

"Yes, standing right in front of me."

"Me? Then go ahead and tell me. Whatever your feelings are, I'll accept them."

[ "I love you." ]

[ "I hate you." ]

[ "I want to learn from you." ]

[ "I want to challenge you." ]

[ "I want to support you." ]

[ "I want you to work harder." ]

"Mentor, huh?" Naruko muttered to himself.

"I want to learn from you," Naruko answered out loud along with his selection.

"I feel the same. Or rather, I want to teach you and watch you grow."

The message box disappeared and Toudou lifted his head with a sudden flash of hope. His voice was breathy with excitement. "This is it. I swear I will gladly teach you until we find your hidden talent for climbing!"

Toudou held out his hand, palm up, until Arakita yelled at him, "Hand against the window!" He pressed his palm to the screen like the others.

"Yeah, that's fine. I'm just glad we finally got to the finish!"

Naruko caught Toudou's hand. He seemed to be having difficulty getting through the screen, even once he got his other hand free to brace himself on the side of the television and Naruko gripped his arm in both hands and pulled.

Then there was a blinding shower of sparks and smoke and Toudou cried out.

Before anyone else could move Makishima leapt forward, grabbed the back of Toudou's jersey, and hauled him up and out.

There was a loud crack. Onoda saw Toudou and Makishima both move to shield Naruko from the sparks that were still flying. Then he couldn't see what was going on because Fukutomi's back was right in front of him. At the same time Manami pulled him close. A hand on the back of his head pushed his face down against Manami's chest.

Then there was a flash and one final crack that seemed to shake the house, and the room went dark.

When he opened his eyes and pulled out of Manami's shielding embrace, Onoda found he could see faintly. A light from the kitchen was still shining down the hallway.

The two teams that had been lounging around the room had suddenly compacted into small groups. It looked like there had been a universal reaction among the third years to shield their underclassmen, whomever happened to be closest. Arakita had even tackled Imaizumi to the floor.

"Maki-chan?" Toudou was the first to break the silence, and the only thing he was interested in saying was a second, shrill cry of, "Maki-chan!"

One of the dark shapes that had just separated into an individual silhouette abruptly threw itself at another, making them one again.

"What are you doing!?"

The only answer was Toudou repeating the name over and over, in tones that made it everything from an endearment to a plea.

Naruko scooted well back from the couple.

"Is everyone all right?" Fukutomi's voice carried through the room. He started with Manami and called each member of his team by name, getting an affirmative response from each.

"Everyone else?" Kinjou asked. "Speak up if anything hurts. Naruko?"

"I'm fine. What the hell was that?"

"I don't know, but it seems to have tripped the circuit breaker."

Onoda was very grateful for calm captains. He didn't know what he would do. Not that he could do much right now. Manami didn't seem to want to let go and now Naruko was leaning on his legs, further trapping him.

"I'll reset it. Toudou, let go," Makishima ordered.

Toudou did not appear to be the slightest bit interested in letting go.

"You stay there. I remember where it is," Tadokoro called cheerfully, laughing at the annoyed noise from Makishima.

"We need to unplug the TV first. The outlet is over here, right?" Fukutomi moved carefully in the dark to rummage behind the TV stand.

Makishima let out a supremely aggravated sigh. He lowered his voice, though not enough for Onoda not to catch the words when he said, "Calm down. I'm right here. You're fine now."

Toudou's answer was too muffled to make out.

When the lights came on, Makishima had one hand in the middle of Toudou's back, head bent to say something that was probably more welcoming than 'Get off of me.' This only lasted for a second before he abruptly braced both hands on Toudou's shoulders and pushed him away.

"See? Everyone's here, so stop crying."

"I was not crying!"

Fukutomi was standing over them, looking somehow more deathly serious than usual. His firm, "Toudou," sounded very much like a command, though not one Onoda understood.

If Toudou understood he probably had other things on his mind. With a loud cry of, "Fuku!" he scrambled to his feet.

It was hard to tell if he intended to throw himself at his captain. He tripped over the controller and ended up crashing into him. What was clear was that Fukutomi caught him and hugged him so hard he was nearly lifted off of his feet.

"Forgive me."

"No. I understand. I never could have forgiven myself if it was Shinkai or Izumida left there and we lost."

"Just Shinkai or Izumida, huh?" Arakita needled, leaning close to give Toudou a look. The thin smirk said he was just joking.

Toudou's answer was to grab Arakita's shirt and haul him closer. He threw an arm around Arakita in a one-sided hug. Arakita might have been able to escape, but Fukutomi did the same, hugging him too hard for him to squirm away.

"Hey!"

Manami released Onoda and jumped up to join them. He threw both arms around Toudou's waist and wormed his way under Fukutomi's arm and with joyful, "Welcome back!" Onoda glimpsed his hand tugging on Arakita's shirt as well, as if his upperclassman might feel unloved otherwise.

Izumida wasn't shy about joining in either. He wrapped one arm around Manami's back, far enough to at least touch the captain in passing, and one around Toudou's. He bowed his head seriously and said, "Now we're all together again."

"That's right." Shinkai joined the hug behind Toudou, squeezing Izumida and Arakita, who was still grumbling even if he was hugging Toudou and Fukutomi back. It looked to Onoda like Shinkai was trying to stretch his arms wide enough to encompass them all.

The Hakogaku team hug only lasted about five seconds before they pulled apart again.

There was a moment of silence. Shinkai still had a hand on Izumida's shoulder and Manami was still leaning subtly against Toudou and Fukutomi's arms.

Arakita had his arms crossed as if to ward off further hugs. "Well, Fuku-chan? What's the plan now?"

* * *

It turned out no one had much of a plan.

The TV screen was smashed. Makishima complained about that, demanding of Toudou what he did to make that happen. They didn't know if it was the strain of bringing over four people or of pulling the last person to freedom. In the end, Onoda supposed it didn't matter.

The backs of Toudou's jersey and Makishima's shirt were covered with tiny singe marks. (Toudou didn't want to undress in front of everyone, and when Arakita pointed out that literally everyone in the room had seem him shirtless he got upset enough that even his combative teammate backed down and escorted him to the bathroom.) Ultimately they were both reported to be uninjured.

It was almost three in the morning by the time everyone was reassured that everyone else was in one piece. No one was taking a train back to Hakone at that point. None of the Sohoku team wanted to make the trip home at this time of night, either.

Even between guest beds and extra futons and couches there wasn't quite enough space, but they made do. Everyone settled down to get some sleep before morning.

Onoda's mind drifted to Makishima insisting that he wanted to sleep in his own bed. Toudou's fingers had curled hopefully around his and he had only complained a little bit: 'You have to shut up and let me sleep,' and, 'If you try anything I'll kick you out.' The last Onoda had seen of them, he had been holding Toudou's hand tightly.

Somehow Onoda imagined Toudou really saying things like, 'I missed you. You're amazing. I love you.' He was sure they would be sleeping peacefully and happily in each other's arms by now.

The position Onoda found himself in probably wasn't meant-to-be the way it was for them. He had only been able to be this close to Manami for a day.

But Manami had suggested they share, and he had suggested that Onoda use him as a pillow, so at least Onoda knew he didn't mind. Manami's chest wasn't very soft or comfortable, and it shifted as he breathed, but he was warm to lay against. Onoda kept letting his eyes drift closed and then opening them again, too many thoughts tumbling in his mind to sleep.

The game was truly over. The disc had shattered into pieces. When Onoda discovered that they agreed it probably wouldn't be a good idea for him to keep using the console, because of the shrapnel if nothing else. He had been despondent thinking about how long he would have to save up for a new one, but Makishima had patted his head awkwardly and offered to buy him a replacement, saying he was one of the ones who helped break it.

It really was over. Hakone wasn't that far, right? About as far as the training spot Imaizumi had originally planned for the day. He would be able to go see Manami on weekends.

He needed to stop thinking about things like seeing Manami and dating Manami and how Manami's arm felt draped over him or he was never going to get any sleep.

"Sakamichi-kun," Manami said softly.

Onoda froze. "Sorry! Ah," he dropped his voice to a whisper, remembering both of their teams were sleeping around them, "Sorry. Was I keeping you awake?"

"Mm, not really. I was just thinking I'd like to go outside, and since you're awake you can come with me."

"But we're supposed to be sleeping."

"But I can't sleep, and neither can you, right?"

Manami's cheerful voice was hard to refuse. Onoda let himself be led between his sleeping teammates and outside.

"The night air feels good." Manami stretched, then started to lead Onoda down the front steps. "Let's go for a ride!"

"What?"

"I'll take the mama bike this time, okay?"

"It's the middle of the night!"

"Isn't it nice? The air is cool and heavy, and we'll have the road all to ourselves."

"Do you really go out and do this kind of thing?"

"Well, I have a curfew at home, so not very often."

"Wait!" Onoda cried. Manami had started leading him towards the side of the house where everyone had parked their bikes. "Isn't that dangerous? The only time I've been out biking really late was on a closed course and it already felt dangerous racing like that in the dark."

Manami paused, then turned so he could hold both of Onoda's hands in his. "I only want to ride enough to feel the wind. I can't make you race if you don't want to, and if you come with me we can stay on roads where you feel safe."

"Oh." Onoda's fingers curled around Manami's without him intending them to. The night air did feel nice, and he did want to be with Manami. "Okay."

"Great! Ah, yours is at the back now." Manami tugged him to his bike, and his enthusiasm was enough to carry Onoda along the rest of the way.

Onoda was kind of glad Manami had wanted to try the mama bike. He wasn't used to the weight, and Onoda hoped it was slowing him down a little. When he had said he wanted to feel the wind, he was serious.

He also eagerly pointed out every hill they passed, wanting Onoda to climb with him. Onoda was tempted to take him to Mt. Minegayama, but then they would be out far too long.

Onoda wasn't being as careful as he should be. He kept watching Manami without meaning to. The yellow streetlights tarnished all the blue out of his dark hair and threw deep shadows under his eyes. Onoda watched his wild smile and the way he laughed while insisting on climbing on the larger outside gear. When the wind blew around him his eyes fell almost closed, and more than once Onoda heard a long sigh as it was swept away, as if he was speaking back to the wind.

Once he looked over with an expression of longing that made Onoda's heart jump, and then abruptly snapped out of it with a laugh. "No, I promised no racing tonight."

Onoda finally paid for his lack of attention when he hit a pothole and was almost jolted off of his bike. Before he could blink there was an arm around him and Manami was so close he thought their handlebars should have knocked together.

"Do you want to rest?"

"Mm." Onoda nodded. He almost didn't want Manami to take his arm away.

They found a convenience store. The cheerful island of light was surreal after quiet, empty streets. Manami dug through his pockets and then apologetically announced he'd left his wallet in the game. Onoda didn't know how he'd remembered to pocket his own, but he bought juice for both of them, as well as a rice ball for Manami.

They sat on the curb outside. Manami gazed silently up at the stars while he ate, but his hand found Onoda's and captured it.

While Manami looked at the stars, Onoda quietly studied his profile. Even when the light didn't silhouette him beautifully and there was no wind to stir his hair, even when he wasn't riding, there was something Onoda's attention kept getting caught on. It was ten times worse now that he had Manami here in the flesh. Maybe it was just the never-ending range of Manami's expressions.

Onoda wanted to lean against Manami's side. He wanted to take the grain of rice that stuck to Manami's lip before it was licked away. He wanted a lot of things. There were things he'd read in manga or seen on TV, but also wordless things that came from the feeling deep in his chest that said being close to Manami felt good and he wanted more of this.

"Do you want a bite, Sakamichi-kun?" Manami offered, holding the rice ball in front of his mouth. "Get some of the filling. It's tasty."

"Mm." Onoda didn't know what else to say, so he went ahead and took a bite. His throat seemed too dry to swallow, and then Manami's thumb brushed along his lower lip and he did swallow hard enough the food got stuck in his throat and he had to gulp his juice to dislodge it.

Manami finished off his rice ball. He seemed completely unaware of Onoda's emotional tumult.

"I'm glad you came with me after all. It's so much fun to finally ride with you."

"I-" Affection got stuck as well and ended up in a sudden flash of panic. "Aaah, I didn't realize we'd been gone so long! We didn't even leave a note or anything! What do we do if someone woke up? They'll be worried about us! What do we do. . . ?"

"It's okay. I was going to go anyway, so we'll just say it's my fault and you had to come look after me, right?"

Onoda hid his face in his knees, groaning, "What do I do?" over and over because that wasn't good enough. Manami only laughed.

He wasn't entirely sure how Manami had talked him into this in the first place. It had been fun, but... He felt like he was being dragged at Manami's pace from the moment he took Manami's hand. Manami wasn't shy about asking for what he wanted, and he always seemed to get it. It took Onoda several seconds of mental struggling to find a word for it.

Manami was pushy. Maybe even a little selfish. Onoda hadn't noticed that while playing the game. Any flaws he had were probably smoothed out to please the player, or maybe even hidden in a bid to escape.

Onoda pulled his hand out of Manami's. He took a long, deep breath. He clenched his hands on the curb, gathering his courage.

Without giving himself time to over think it, Onoda threw his arms around Manami's middle and hugged him. He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his face into Manami's chest, concentrating on the fact that Manami was solid. Manami wouldn't disappear when they ran out of perfectly polished script. He thought he might understand a little bit why Manami kept wanting to touch him and hold him.

Manami's arms closed around him. Manami's face pressed into the side of his head. Onoda felt as much as heard Manami breathe his name.

"I'm so glad you're real," Onoda wailed into his chest. "No, sorry. I shouldn't say it that way. But I thought you were just a perfect boyfriend and you could never even know me, and we'd never be able to ride together even though you said if both our hearts wanted it. . . and I said I loved you because I wanted you to have a happy ending even if I couldn't see you anymore-"

"Stop."

Manami's sharp voice hit him so abruptly that Onoda gasped, realizing he had run out of breath. He was pressed so close to Manami it felt difficult to breathe, but for this moment he would chose Manami over breathing.

"I really love you. Is that okay?" Onoda whispered.

There were several long seconds of silence between them. Manami only moved in an attempt to gather Onoda closer, which Onoda wasn't sure did anything other than make his heart pound.

"I love you so much, I think you might have broken me for loving anyone else. Please take responsibility for winning my heart."

"Manami-kun!" Onoda cried in alarm.

"This is what we both wanted, isn't it? To meet with no screen between us. We can do and say anything we want. You know, I heard you when you said things to me and then changed your mind, so I'm looking forward to hearing your honest responses from now on."

"Sorry!"

"It's okay!" Manami laughed. "I'm sure you'll hear lots of strange things now that there's nothing to stop me."

"I look forward to it, too."

Manami laughed again and squirmed in Onoda's arms, separating them enough that he could look at Onoda's face.

"Sakamichi-kun," he started in a grave tone. Then he sighed and apparently changed his mind about addressing Onoda so seriously, because he hugged Onoda again so they were cheek-to-cheek instead. "I also want to see you have a happy ending."


End file.
